Santana's fiancé called 911 because he was worried about her safety, not because he wanted her arrested. Instead, Iara Do Carmo Santana, a 29-year-old immigrant from Brazil recovering from a miscarriage and a subsequent infection, spent roughly four days inside ICE's field office in Burlington before a federal judge ordered her freed.
Santana's fiancé made the call amid concerns for her well-being during what the family describes as a mental health crisis tied to her recent medical ordeal, according to The Boston Globe. Santana was arrested and charged with domestic violence, and she was later detained by ICE, the paper reports.
ICE later detained Santana after her domestic-violence arrest.
A Miscarriage, Surgery, and a Missed Green Card Plan
Santana recently miscarried and later developed an infection. She later applied for asylum, received employment authorization, and has an immigration court date scheduled for 2029.
Inside the Burlington facility, Santana's infection worsened during detention after she was deprived of medication, according to the Globe. Her medical condition deteriorated over the course of her detention.
Judge Addresses Conditions at Burlington Facility
A federal judge admonished immigration authorities over conditions at the Burlington facility.
Santana was recovering from a miscarriage when she was detained. ICE commonly ships detained women from Massachusetts to Louisiana and Texas, according to Universal Hub.
Conditions Inside the Burlington Facility
The Globe reports that the Burlington ICE facility has poor conditions and inadequate medical care. Detainees sleep without mattresses on concrete floors. Medical help at the site is scarce, the paper found.
The Burlington office has been used for overnight detention, even as reports have raised concerns about its conditions.
Judge Sorokin's intervention in Santana's case echoes his prior ruling involving the same facility. In January, he ordered the emergency release of a Brazilian woman held in Burlington, finding ICE could not detain her in a facility lacking beds and window access while shipping her to southern facilities, according to Universal Hub. The same judge has issued other rulings involving ICE detainees.
Policy on Paper Versus Practice in the Field
ICE's own internal policy, Directive 11032.4, states that agents should avoid detaining known pregnant, postpartum, or nursing individuals except in exceptional circumstances, according to the National Immigrant Women's Advocacy Project. Santana's four-day hold during her postpartum recovery sits in tension with that written guidance.
The Burlington office's use as a multi-day holding site has drawn sustained local and congressional pushback. Municipal paper trails from 2007 show that when the 1000 District Avenue facility was originally permitted, local officials stipulated it would operate strictly for short-term administrative processing rather than overnight detention, a point Hoodline has previously reported. In June 2025, the Burlington Select Board sought access to inspect the property, but federal authorities denied municipal inspection requests.
That same month, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey led the Massachusetts congressional delegation in demanding federal action over reports of severe overcrowding, lack of sanitary supplies, and multi-day stays exceeding standard 12-hour guidelines at the office. Just weeks before Santana's arrest, in August, the Middlesex District Attorney's Office dropped criminal trespassing charges against two activists arrested outside the Burlington ICE office after defense attorneys prepared a witness list — including the building's private landlord and a former detainee — to expose conditions inside during trial.
A federal class-action lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Massachusetts established that ICE routinely violates constitutional due process across New England by detaining noncitizens without bearing the burden of proof to justify detention at bond hearings. Santana's habeas petition arrives inside that broader legal fight over how ICE treats detainees awaiting hearings across the region.
