A Chicago mother detained since February has had her deportation case thrown out by an immigration judge, but she is not going home yet. Martha Gutierrez remains behind bars while federal officials decide whether to appeal the ruling, according to the advocacy group that has been tracking her case.
United Giving Hope said the judge rejected the government's deportation charge against Gutierrez on Tuesday and ordered her deportation proceedings terminated, according to ABC7 Chicago. Despite that outcome, Gutierrez remains in custody as the government decides whether it will appeal the ruling, the outlet reported. Her family says she was born in Mexico but has lived in Chicago since 1990 as a legal permanent resident.
Relatives told the station that Gutierrez traveled to Mexico in February and has been detained in the United States ever since. Her family has said she faced deportation because of two retail theft charges in Illinois that they say had already been resolved — though that account is not the only version circulating. NBC Chicago, citing its own reporting, said two retail theft convictions from 1999 and 2004 flagged her for removal, a detail that differs from her family's characterization of the matter as resolved charges rather than convictions.
Conflicting Details On Where Her Case Was Heard
Exactly where Gutierrez's case played out has also been described differently across outlets. An earlier ABC7 report said she was scheduled to appear before an immigration judge Tuesday morning in Tennessee. NBC Chicago, however, reported that her final hearing was scheduled for Tuesday morning in Kentucky, and separately said she had been arrested in February at Midway Airport and was being held in federal custody in Kentucky, according to NBC Chicago.
Her detention has taken a toll on her daughters, who have had to navigate daily life without their mother's support in the months since her arrest, per the earlier ABC7 account. With the proceedings now terminated but no word yet on whether the government will appeal, the family's wait continues.
A Similar Case Just Ended In Release
Gutierrez's situation echoes another recent Illinois case that drew attention this week. Beata Siemionkowicz, a Polish green-card holder from Round Lake, walked into her daughters' tearful embrace after being released from ICE detention on bond, according to the Chicago Tribune. A federal judge had ruled that her detention had become unreasonably prolonged and violated her due process rights, the paper reported, though Siemionkowicz still faces deportation to Poland under an order issued in December 2025.
The ruling in Siemionkowicz's case required the government to show by clear and convincing evidence that her continued detention was necessary, according to the Lake & McHenry County Scanner, which reported the judge also ordered an individualized bond hearing within seven days. That case, too, traced back to old retail theft matters — a pattern now surfacing in both detentions.
For Gutierrez, no such release has materialized despite the favorable ruling in her case. Her family and United Giving Hope are now watching to see whether the government appeals, a decision that will determine what comes next for a woman who has called Chicago home for more than three decades.
