For 14 years, Joyce Basele did what ICE asked of her: She showed up for scheduled check-ins and remained available to immigration officials. But when the 64-year-old Houston woman arrived for another appointment on June 18, she was taken into custody. She remains detained even after her attorneys secured a pause on her deportation.
Basele entered the United States legally from Kenya in September 2005 as the dependent spouse of a religious worker, according to Click2Houston. Her attorney, Leslie Kirby, said Basele lost her dependent visa status after a divorce, later received a final order of removal and had earlier asylum appeals fail because of legal and procedural problems. ICE then placed her under an order of supervision, and its public guidance says people in removal proceedings are generally required to check in with the agency at least once a year.
Houston Case Reflects A Wider Texas Shift
Basele’s detention comes as Texas ICE arrests increasingly involve people who have no known criminal convictions or pending charges. A Houston Chronicle analysis of federal records found that ICE arrested more than 38,100 such people in Texas between February 2025 and February 2026, more than the number of people with convictions or pending charges during that period.
Data from the Deportation Data Project shows the same pattern in the records available for 2026, though the year is incomplete. KPRC 2 reported that 48.1% of the 18,612 Texas ICE arrests recorded through March 11 involved people with no convictions or pending charges, compared with 38.7% of arrests in all of 2025; the outlet cautioned that the 2026 records do not represent a full year. The Department of Homeland Security disputes the broader interpretation, saying some people classified as noncriminal may have committed offenses outside the United States.
Deportation Paused While Custody Continues
Kirby said her legal team obtained a stay of deportation while a humanitarian petition remains pending. She said ICE told the attorneys it would not deport Basele for now, but the agency has continued holding her at a CoreCivic-operated immigration detention facility. Basele spent her 64th birthday in custody on July 14, and Kirby said a federal habeas corpus petition may be the next step in challenging the detention.
Why The Legal Fight Matters
A stay of removal can stop deportation without automatically ending immigration detention, leaving the custody question to lawyers, ICE and the courts. That issue is already being tested in Houston: The Associated Press reported that a federal judge recently ordered ICE to release another Houston detainee with no criminal history, finding that indefinite detention without an individualized justification raised due-process concerns. The ruling does not decide Basele’s case, but it shows how quickly routine immigration enforcement disputes can become federal court battles.
Basele Joins A Growing Houston Pattern
Basele’s story follows other Houston-area cases in which scheduled immigration appointments ended in detention. Hoodline previously reported on a longtime preschool teacher detained after a routine check-in, while another Houston case left two U.S.-citizen toddlers without their father after an ICE appointment. The cases involve different immigration histories and legal outcomes, but together they have made the check-in office a growing flashpoint for Houston families.
