MONROE, La. (KTVE/KARD) -- After months of unlawful detention despite a federal court order granting her bond, Larysa Kostak has been released from the Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe.
However, her freedom remains uncertain as the federal government continues to challenge the ruling that upheld her constitutional rights, a case with wide-reaching implications for thousands of immigrants detained across Louisiana.
Kostak, a 50-year-old Ukrainian woman, has lived in Brooklyn, New York, for nearly 20 years after fleeing Ukraine in 2005 for political reasons. She became a well-known and beloved member of her community. But on June 26, during a routine court appointment for her asylum case, she was abruptly arrested by federal authorities and transported over 1,000 miles away from her