25 Investigates: Canton mom speaks out after 10 days in immigration detention

For the first time since being detained by immigration officials, a Canton mother is speaking publicly about her experience.

25 Investigates first reported last week that despite living legally in the U.S., Jemmy Jimenez-Rosa was detained at Logan International Airport when returning from a family vacation in Mexico earlier this month.

In an interview you’ll see only on Boston 25 News, she said she is still recovering emotionally and physically but chose to speak out for those who cannot.

“I am. I’m a sister, I’m a daughter, I am a wife,” she said. “I’m just a regular person,” said Jemmy Jimenez Rosa.

But the Canton mom suddenly found herself at the center of the national immigration debate.

“I didn’t really think anything was gonna happen to me because I’ve traveled before. I traveled multiple times,” Jimenez-Rosa told Boston 25 Investigates.

On August 11, Jemmy, her husband, and their three young daughters flew back to Logan from a family trip to Mexico. Jimenez-Rosa came to the U.S. legally from Peru at age nine. She is a lawful permanent resident with a Green Card that was just renewed this summer.

When the family reached Customs, an officer pulled her aside for additional questioning.

“They were like, well, do you want to go say goodbye? I was what do you mean goodbye?” Jimenez-Rosa said.

Immigration officers raised a decades-old misdemeanor marijuana possession conviction. At that moment, she realized she wasn’t going home that night.

“My mind right now is just kind of like, I’m gonna say goodbye to my kids. I’m not going to see them again, like, what’s happening? I just start thinking the worst,” she recalled.

Jimenez-Rosa says she spent the next four nights at Logan Airport, without access to a shower, a phone call, or even the knowledge that her husband had already hired an attorney.

“It was a cell, no windows, it’s just four walls, a toilet, a little sink, a bench,” she said. “I felt alone, scared.”

25 Investigates has been pressing federal officials for answers. Customs and Border Protection referred Boston 25 News back to a statement they issued last week:

“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.”

While in custody, Jimenez-Rosa said she suffered uncontrolled anxiety attacks that spiked her blood pressure and twice landed her in the hospital. She said she did not have access to her prescribed medication.

After four nights at Logan, she was transferred to an ICE facility in Burlington. From there, she was moved again — this time to a county jail in Maine that had space for female immigration detainees.

In the meantime, her attorney went before a judge in Roxbury District Court and successfully argued to have her old conviction tossed out, saying Jimenez-Rosa did not have proper legal counsel at the time.

Two days later, ICE released her — 10 days after officers at Logan told her to say goodbye to her children.

“My concern right now is trying to get back to normal and just make sure my kids are okay,” she said.

When asked how she would summarize those 10 days in detention, Jimenez-Rosa didn’t hesitate:

“Hell. That was Hell for me. I don’t wish what happened to me being my worst enemy,” she said.

She added: “They need to have a better system. This is not okay, because they’re ruining people’s life. They’re separating mothers from their kids.”

Jimenez-Rosa said she is sharing her story for a larger purpose.

“I’m doing it for the people that can’t speak for themselves,” she said. “If they took time to listen to the people that are inside and hear their stories, they don’t deserve to be there, a lot of them don’t.”

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