YPSILANTI, MI - An Ypsilanti woman who has been in federal custody since July 11 for living in the country without authorization is still being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.



Mayra Montoya-Jimenez, a 55-year-old immigrant from Costa Rica, agreed to voluntary deportation last month and was scheduled to fly back to her home country on Tuesday, Aug. 22.



Nearly a week later, she's still in ICE custody and the Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights is trying to find out why, questioning whether it's retaliation for Montoya-Jimenez speaking out about her experience being detained by ICE at the Calhoun County Correctional Center in Battle Creek.



"It strikes me as too much of a coincidence," WICIR activist Maria Ibarra-Frayre said of Montoya-Jimenez's detention being prolonged.



"And regardless of whether or not it's retaliation, the impact is still the same. She's still being harmed -- she's in a cage basically."



ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls said in a statement the agency strongly denies any allegation of retaliation against Montoya-Jimenez, who has publicly raised concerns about her detainment, including concerns about access to medicine. In a recent interview, she claimed it took weeks just to get the jail to agree to give her pain medication after she was taken into custody following a car crash in Canton.



"Her voluntary departure was delayed due to an administrative oversight, which has since been rectified," Walls said of the reason why she didn't fly back to Costa Rica last Tuesday.



Walls did not respond to a request for more information about the nature of the oversight.



Ibarra-Frayre said the idea that an administrative oversight kept Montoya-Jimenez from being able to fly back to Costa Rica as planned last week doesn't make sense because she had her own plane ticket and she should have been on the plane.



Ibarra-Frayre said Montoya-Jimenez was transferred to the Dearborn Police Station and then back to Calhoun County last week. Based on conversations with Montoya-Jimenez's partner, WICIR is concerned that Montoya-Jimenez was being denied food and medicine.



Ibarra-Frayre said a WICIR volunteer also waited more than an hour to see Montoya-Jimenez in Dearborn only to be told that she had been transferred back to Calhoun County.



"We've been trying to understand why they put her in Dearborn and then back in Battle Creek," Ibarra-Frayre said, arguing if detainees are going to be moved around, their families have a right to know why.



According to WICIR, Montoya-Jimenez is now set to leave the country on Sept. 6.



In response to concerns raised about Montoya-Jimenez's situation, Walls said on behalf of ICE, "Continuity of care is maintained consistent with rigorous agency standards."



Randy Hazel, Calhoun County's jail administrator, declined to comment on her prolonged detainment, referring questions to ICE.

Montoya-Jimenez came to the United States in 2004 on a travel visa and then stayed illegally, starting a new life in Ypsilanti with her partner, Alejandro. She got into a car accident in Canton on July 11, which led to immigration authorities taking her into custody.