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Delaware County nurse faces deportation threat after 15 days in ICE custody
Monica Ryadi was detained at Los Angeles International Airport while traveling to Disneyland with her U.S.-citizen husband and young son. Her attorney says a legal protection bars her removal, while federal officials say she has a final deportation order.
PHILADELPHIA — Delaware County nurse Monica Ryadi appeared for her first check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Philadelphia on Thursday, Oct. 15, wearing a GPS ankle monitor and accompanied by supporters. She was detained for 15 days after ICE arrested her at Los Angeles International Airport while she was traveling to Disneyland with her husband and 3-year-old son, her attorney said.
Ryadi, a registered nurse with Main Line Health, said she was grateful for the people who came to support her. “I’m just a regular person,” she said outside the ICE office in Chinatown.
Her attorney, Eric Rosenfeld, said federal officials had not given Ryadi or him paperwork explaining the detention. He said ICE told her she could be sent to a third country. Rosenfeld said the legal team plans to challenge any effort to deport her.
The Department of Homeland Security said agents arrested Ryadi during a targeted enforcement operation at LAX. The agency said she entered the United States legally in 2005 with permission to remain for six months, overstayed and received due process before an immigration judge issued a final removal order in 2010.
Rosenfeld said Ryadi’s family lost its asylum case that year, but an immigration judge also granted her withholding of removal, which he said protects her from deportation. The competing accounts leave her immigration status and the government’s next steps at the center of a legal dispute.
Ryadi said her family came to the United States after fleeing religious persecution in Indonesia when she was 9. She described being approached by several men after disembarking at LAX, who demanded identification and then asked for her passport despite her showing a Real ID. She said her immediate concern was her son, who witnessed the encounter.
U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon has spoken out in support of Ryadi, calling her case “particularly unforgivable.” Scanlon said Ryadi has committed no crimes, paid taxes and served the community as a nurse.
Ryadi said she considers the United States home and fears being sent to a country where she would not know what to do. Her attorney said deportation remains possible as the case proceeds.