A 32-year-old Florida woman who flew to Boston to see Noah Kahan at Fenway Park was detained by immigration officers at Logan International Airport as she tried to fly home, and has been held at an ICE facility in Burlington since, her attorney told the Boston Globe.
Maria Rosales attended Kahan’s July 8 concert and was stopped at Logan on Friday, July 10. On the same day, at the same airport, immigration officers detained David Ardila, a Seattle-based DJ originally from Venezuela who had come to Boston for the World Cup quarterfinal between France and Morocco at Boston Stadium the day before. Ardila is being held at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility, according to ICE’s online database, the Boston Globe reported.
Both are represented by Boston attorney Todd Pomerleau, who told the Globe he has been told of about 10 people detained for immigration-related reasons at Logan in the past three months. Most of them, he said, have never been charged with a crime.
The Globe reported that the arrests have coincided with an influx of travelers to Boston for major summer events, including the World Cup. Boston Stadium in Foxborough hosted seven matches between June 13 and July 9 — among them Haiti’s opening loss to Scotland on June 13, which drew Haitian families to New England from Florida, New York, Montreal, and beyond. The tournament’s Boston schedule ended the day before Rosales and Ardila were detained. The travelers were on their way out.
What happened to Rosales
Rosales was brought to the United States from Colombia at age four and grew up in Florida, Pomerleau said. She works as a dermatologist’s assistant and directs Vestige Winter Guard, an indoor color guard troupe for young adults based in Orlando that she founded.
She has been living in the country through Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. DACA grants protection in two-year increments and must be renewed; Rosales’s renewal application has been pending since September 2023, Pomerleau said.
The reason for her arrest, according to her attorney, was a removal order entered in June 2017 that she did not know existed.
Pomerleau said he believes the order traces back to an earlier encounter: while traveling with a relative inside the United States, Rosales was stopped at an immigration checkpoint in New Mexico, briefly detained, and handed a notice to appear for a hearing. That notice, he said, did not specify a time or a place. Rosales qualified for DACA around that period and believed the matter was closed. An order was entered anyway. She learned of it nine years later, in custody.
This is the mechanism CTN readers should understand: DACA defers deportation. It does not cancel a judge’s prior order, and a renewal application sitting in a queue since 2023 protects no one at a boarding gate.
Where the case stands
Pomerleau filed a petition for habeas corpus on Saturday, July 11, challenging the legality of Rosales’s detention. A habeas petition asks a federal judge a single question: Is the government holding this person lawfully?
U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin issued an emergency order barring federal authorities from moving Rosales out of Massachusetts while the court reviews the case. That order is temporary, but it matters. Detainees in comparable cases have been transferred hundreds of miles from their lawyers and families. It keeps her within reach of the court hearing her claim.
“Right now the goal is keeping her in the region and getting her out of jail,” Pomerleau told the Globe.
Locating her took effort. Rosales appears in ICE’s online detainee locator, but the site does not list where she is held; it directs callers to the agency. Pomerleau said he learned her location from her brother.
Her brother, who asked the Globe not to publish his name, said he has spoken with her once a day since she called on Friday to say she had been arrested. She has described frozen meals and no outdoor recreation time. On Monday, he said, she asked him what time it was.
ICE did not respond to the Globe’s questions about the arrest or its recent activity at Logan. A spokesperson for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs the airport, referred questions to federal authorities.
Friends have sent letters of support to Pomerleau. One friend, Gabriella Hutagalung, wrote that Rosales works hard and helps support her parents, and that her circle is devastated by the hardship ahead for the family. Another, Larissa Valdes, wrote that Rosales makes her community better.
Mass Deportation Defense, the nonprofit Pomerleau runs, is coordinating legal intake and support, and posted that Rosales had choreographed a color guard routine to “Orbiter,” a song from Kahan’s latest album. He played it at Fenway on July 8.
What to check before you fly
CTN is not a law firm, and the following is not legal advice. But the pattern in this case points to steps immigration attorneys routinely recommend:
- Find out whether a removal order exists in your name. The Executive Office for Immigration Review runs an automated case information system by phone and online. An immigration attorney can pull your record.
- Do not assume a pending application shields you. A pending DACA renewal, asylum filing, or other application does not cancel an existing order.
- A domestic flight is still a point of enforcement. Neither Rosales nor Ardila left the country.
- Talk to an attorney before booking, not after being detained. Pomerleau’s own warning to noncitizens, given to the Globe: “These are just different times.” He added that a trip that went fine recently is no guarantee this month.
- Make sure someone close to you has your A-number and an attorney’s contact information, and that they know ICE’s locator may not show where you are being held.
Mass Deportation Defense can be reached at massdeportationdefense.org.
This article is for informational purposes and is not legal advice. Anyone with questions about their immigration status should consult a licensed immigration attorney or a representative accredited by the U.S. Department of Justice.
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