Minnesota mother held by ICE despite judge’s order

Antonia Aguilar Maldonado, a 25-year-old Salvadoran woman, remains in ICE detention in Minnesota more than two weeks after she was arrested by federal agents in St. Paul while on her way to work.

Aguilar Maldonado, who lives in Lake Elmo, entered the U.S. without legal status as a 17-year-old unaccompanied minor in 2016. Now, she is the mother of two U.S. citizen children, including a 22-month-old nursing toddler. Her legal team says she was detained without warning, shortly after leaving her children on her way to work as a self-employed painter.

Her attorneys, Gloria Contreras Edin and Hannah Brown, say Aguilar Maldonado is being held at the Kandiyohi County Jail in Willmar, which houses ICE detainees, despite having no criminal record, an active asylum case, and a bond approved by an