On August 27, Rishda Zambrano left a hotel in Charlotte at 2 a.m. to stand in line outside the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) office, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) also operates.
It was the fifth time she had gone to her annual appointment with immigration authorities. She thought she would return home with a new date for the following year, but she ended up being detained.
His wife, Stefania Salerno, 28, was staying at the hotel with their daughter, Lia, who was just three months old at the time. She was recovering from a cesarean section and gallbladder surgery performed on August 12.
Hours later, Rishda, 33, asked her to come to the DHS office with the baby. When Stefania arrived, at approximately 11:45 a.m., her wife was no longer responding to messages.
“That’s when I started crying…because I realized that she was going to stay there and that I was going to be alone,” Stefania recounted in an interview with Enlace Latino NC.
Five years building a life in Greensboro
Stefania and Rishda arrived together from Venezuela five years ago and settled in Greensboro. According to Stefania, They requested asylum.They obtained work permits and driver's licenses, and fulfilled their tax obligations.
“From the first day we arrived, we tried to do things the right way,” she said.
Both are electricians and belong to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) union, Local 342. Before her arrest, Rishda was working on a data center construction project in Madison, a town in Guilford County.
Transfers and a denied bail
According to Stefania, Rishda was first transferred to Georgia and, two weeks later, to a detention center in Louisiana.
The family filed a lawsuit “habeas corpus” to obtain a bail hearingHowever, the request was rejected on the grounds that Rishda posed a flight risk.
Stefania questions that decision because her wife always voluntarily attended her immigration appointments.
“She literally walked out and came back in voluntarily,” he recounted about the day of the arrest, when an officer allowed Rishda to briefly leave the DHS office at Tyvola Centre to get into her vehicle.
The family appealed the denial of bail, and at the time of the interview, Rishda had her first preliminary asylum hearing before a judge virtually. The judge gave him a new date for November 4th.
If we return to Venezuela, our family would fall apart.
A possible deportation to Venezuela Stefania is especially concerned, as she fears that her marriage and Rishda's parental rights will not be legally recognized in her home country, since same-sex marriages are not recognized by law.
“I wouldn’t go back to Venezuela because our family would completely fall apart there,” she said.
Stefania, who gave birth to Lia, fears that her wife will lose legal recognition as the girl's mother.
Over $10,000 in legal expenses
The arrest has also dealt a financial blow to the family. Rishda was the main breadwinner, and Stefania had stopped working during her pregnancy and subsequent gallbladder surgery.
According to his testimony, he has spent more than $10,000 on fees for abogados and in immigration procedures. To raise the money, he sold a vehicle, organized raffles, and received help from family and friends.
“That’s how we’ve been able to sustain ourselves,” he explained.
Faced with mounting expenses, she launched a GoFundMe campaign titled “Hope for Two Moms and Their Little Girl,” with a goal of $6,500.
“I organized the fundraiser because there came a point when I was too embarrassed to wait for help from my family and friends,” she confessed.
While the migration process continues, Stefania takes care of Lia, now five months old, and holds out hope of reuniting with Rishda.
“We will continue fighting until we know the final decision on my wife’s case,” the Venezuelan woman stated.
How to help: The community can support this Venezuelan family through their campaign on GoFundMe.
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