Vilma Palacios, a 22-year-old nursing student, has spoken out about her six-month detention at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing center. In June, her journey took a shocking twist. Agents from ICE arrested her and moved her – without any legal authority – to a much larger facility in Basile, Louisiana. With the announcement of Palacios’s new job at Touro Infirmary, that will not happen. Just as she was about to begin her nursing career, all of that would come crashing down.
After her arrest on June 26, 2025, Palacios didn’t waste time sitting in jail—she immediately made the decision to call for help. So she texted her old classmate, now a county commissioner, two simple messages. In one of the messages, she described being arrested and communicating with her attorney.
Palacios is on an emotional treadmill as she is having to process all that comes with the trauma of detention. Living in an open communal dormitory alongside other detainees, odds are she has been without access to her personal effects. The lengthy detention has taken a significant toll on her mental health. Emma faces a daily challenge in dealing with the ever-present fear of deportation.
Though she fought to win her freedom, Palacios was never able to post bond and be released. Now she faces the horrific prospect of being deported back to Honduras. She fled that country with her parents when she was just six years old, after seeking asylum as a young child. She had already been receiving a work permit and applied for another one before being arrested.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) noted that many detainees receive healthcare that exceeds what they may have accessed before, stating, “This is the best healthcare that many aliens have received in their entire lives.” While this may be true in some regards, it does nothing to mitigate Palacios’s desire to be truly free.
Palacios expressed her deepest desire:
“The only thing now that I want is my freedom back.” – Vilma Palacios
Caught in a political crossfire, Vilma Palacios’s future is full of unknowns. Her story sheds light on the traumas that undocumented people face as they swim against the current of America’s increasingly invasive immigration enforcement, which affects their everyday lives and dreams at every turn.