A North Carolina family is demanding justice after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducted a warrantless, armed raid on their home, detaining 23-year-old nursing student Allison Bustillo and her mother — despite neither having a criminal record.
According to family accounts, ICE agents broke down the front door in February 2025 while searching for a previous occupant facing drug charges. Instead, they encountered Bustillo, a legal asylum seeker from Honduras who has lived in the United States since age 8. At the time, she was supervising her three younger brothers, one of whom is severely autistic, while their mother was at work.
Because of weakened Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) protections, agents handcuffed Bustillo and later took her mother into custody. While her mother was released, Bustillo has now spent six months at Georgia’s Stewart Detention Center — a facility long criticized for inhumane conditions, overcrowding, and one of the highest death and suicide rates among ICE detention centers nationwide.
Bustillo’s health has deteriorated significantly during her detention. She suffers from scoliosis, has been forced to sleep on the floor, and has missed critical medication, leading to numbness on one side of her body and face, abdominal pain, blood in her stool, and dizziness.
She has lost more than 20 pounds since her arrest. Her mother has been sending funds for commissary items like oatmeal and canned tuna — raising questions about the adequacy of the facility’s food supply.
The Department of Homeland Security has threatened to deport the entire family to Mexico — including Bustillo’s U.S. citizen brothers — but they have refused. Immigration advocates warn that ICE can hold her for years to pressure a so-called “voluntary” departure.
Bustillo’s case is part of a broader pattern: TRAC Immigration data shows over 80% of ICE detainees have no criminal convictions. Advocates say Bustillo’s detention reflects systemic failures in immigration enforcement, where non-criminal immigrants are routinely swept into prolonged custody.
Supporters are calling for Bustillo’s immediate release and systemic reforms to prevent the unjust detention of immigrants like her. A petition demanding her freedom has been launched on Change.org, and her case has been highlighted in a Wired article on emergency response failures inside detention centers.
