A New Zealand woman and her six-year-old son have finally been released from U.S. custody after spending nearly four weeks in immigration detention over a visa paperwork issue.

Sarah Shaw, who has lived in Washington state for three years, was stopped by border officials on July 24 while re-entering the country from Canada. She had dropped off her older children at Vancouver airport to visit their grandparents in New Zealand, when officers flagged her “combo card” visa. The document allowed her to work legally in the U.S., but another portion of her petition, filed under the Violence Against Women Act, was still pending.

Her son’s paperwork was approved, but because of the anti-family separation policies, he remained in custody as well, despite her request for his father or a friend to p

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