In late August, Marta Portillo Vasquez kept a routine appointment at a federal immigration office in Revere to update her visa application to live in the United States legally after coming here from El Salvador 20 years ago.

Instead, she was abruptly arrested by immigration officers and within a day was whisked off to a detention facility outside Burlington, Vt., before her family could get a judge in the Boston area to intervene.

It took days for her family to confirm where she was being held, all the while pleading with officials to keep her within reach. They spent the week living in fear she could be transferred anywhere across the country.

“It’s been really worrying. Anxiety. Sleepless nights,” her eldest son, Saul, 32, said in an interview earlier this week. “Now it’s at a crucial

See Full Page