Exclusive: Mom held by ICE for 5 months over decades-old crime speaks out

Melissa Tran, a Maryland mother who spent five months detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told Newsweek about her experience days after her release from federal custody.

Newsweek reached out to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security for comment via email.

Why It Matters

After returning to the White House earlier this year, President Donald Trump quickly implemented a policy of mass deportations, a key pledge he made on the campaign trail. He said he would primarily target those with criminal records, but reports indicate that individuals with misdemeanors, decades-old infractions, or even no criminal records are being swept up in the heightened enforcement.

DHS said in September that more than two million deportations have occurred so far in 2025.

What To Know

Tran immigrated to the United States as a refugee from Vietnam in the early 1990s when she was 11 years old. Her family settled in the Maryland area. When she was 18, she was working a summer job when her then-boyfriend pressured her to take checks from her employer to give him money, her lawyer, Jennie Pasquarella, told Newsweek.

Tran quickly realized what she had done was wrong and told her employer and the police, she said. Her boyfriend took the money and ran, and she ended up facing and pleading guilty in court in 2001.

Court documents seen by Newsweek show that she pleaded guilty to forgery and larceny charges. Immigration officials in 2003 detained her and “charged her with being removable for having an ‘aggravated felony’ and two crimes involving moral turpitude.”

She was sentenced to three years, with two years and eight months suspended, according to court documents.

Tran was initially ordered to be put into deportation proceedings. But Vietnam at the time would not accept deportees from the U.S. who arrived before 1995, so she was eventually released, Pasquarella said.

She went to establish a business in Hagerstown, got married and had kids. She has been adhering to the conditions imposed upon her release and checking in with the government, but she never had any issues until May of this year, Pasquarella said.

Tran told Newsweek she was detained during the check-in with ICE in May—usually a quick process—and that the government did not give her any reason for her detention at the time.

Court documents show that Tran was detained on May 12, 2025, and has been at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington, since May 24, 2025. Her case received coverage by local media throughout her detainment, as her community rallied behind her to secure her release.

“I was very shocked at first because I thought I did something wrong. I never expected to go to check in and be detained because I’ve checked in for the last 21 years, and usually it was a very easy process,” Tran told Newsweek.

She said she was allowed a phone call with her husband and was then taken into custody in Baltimore, where she spent five days. She said she was not allowed to shower and did not have a change of clothes.

From there, she was transferred to Louisiana, then Arizona and finally, Washington. Detainees were shackled during transfers and had to sit on buses or planes for a long time, she said, noting that she was never told where they were going. The trip from Arizona to Washington took 15 hours, she said.

She said that some places were “more crowded than others,” and that she was served undercooked food, sometimes at midnight or 2 a.m.

“Being away from my family, my children, it was very hard. Not knowing how long you’re going to be there or if you’re never going to go home and see them again, it was very hard for me,” she told Newsweek. “There were times I thought I would never get to go home again. With me being across the country, it was very difficult for my family to come to see me.”

Tran was released from custody on Sunday following an order from U.S. District Judge Tiffany Cartwright. She was released around 2 p.m., and her lawyer then took her to a Vietnamese restaurant. From there, Pasquarella bought Tran a plane ticket home, and she soon reunited with her family.

Tran said she spent two days sleeping, as her mind was still processing everything that had happened. But being back with her children is “emotional.”

“I feel so, so happy and I just feel very, very thankful to see my husband, my children. To give them hugs and kisses and to feel them again,” she said.

Still, she said her future is “uncertain” right now as she continues to have her legal case play out in the courts.

“I’m praying and hope that with the help of my attorneys, they can find a way for me,” she told Newsweek. “This is my home; I’ve been living here for the past 30-something years. I don’t know much about [my] birth country. I know more about this country.”

What People Are Saying

Melissa Tran’s lawyer, Jennie Pasquarella, told Newsweek: “Her case really highlights the lack of fairness in the immigration system, that you could be deported for a relatively minor property crime that had occurred more than 20 years ago, without any consideration of the fact that the government has effectively allowed her to live her life here and build her life here. She’s established she is a hardworking, productive member of our society who is much loved, and it absolutely makes no sense to remove her from her community and from her family.”

Judge Tiffany Cartwright wrote in her ruling: “Because there is not a significant likelihood Vietnam will accept Petitioner in the reasonably foreseeable future, her detention is no longer permitted by the INA as construed in Zadvydas.”

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson previously told Newsweek: “A green card is a privilege, not a right, and under our nation’s laws, our government has the authority to revoke a green card if our laws are broken and abused. Lawful Permanent Residents presenting at a U.S. port of entry with previous criminal convictions may be subject to mandatory detention and/or may be asked to provide additional documentation to be set up for an immigration hearing.”

What Happens Next

Tran is free from detention but is still subject to the deportation order. Pasquarella said the next step is to try to avoid a third-country removal, which she described as “the worst possible thing a person could experience.”

Challenging the deportation order will require going back into immigration court and reopening her case.