“This family was lured into the check-in office under a false pretense of safety, and they were ripped away from their lives, from their school, and deported in about 48 hours,” Siembra said.
The Trump administration says its aggressive immigration tactics are aimed at “the worst of the worst” criminals. This week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported Genesis, 11, and her brother Denis, 6, students at Durham’s Burton Magnet Elementary School.
The siblings were detained on Monday along with their parents during a routine check-in appointment in the family’s pending asylum case, the immigrant rights group Siembra NC said at a press conference on Thursday. They were denied due process and the protections that official asylum seekers are prescribed by law, Siembra said, and were deported less than 48 hours after they were taken into custody.
“ Genesis’ and Denis’ family was doing exactly what the system asks of them: They were showing up and fulfilling their legal obligations as they seek refuge,” Siembra’s Andreina Malki said at the news conference in Durham.
“This family was lured to the check-in office under a false pretense of safety, and they were ripped away from their lives, from their school, and deported in about 48 hours,” she said.
ICE has increasingly detained immigrants at their court hearings, a tactic known as a “deportation trap.” Siembra says it has already tracked more than 20 such detentions in North Carolina in 2026. But this was the first known case in the state involving children, Siembra and Durham officials said.
“ This week, ICE crossed a new and alarming line in North Carolina: Children are being targeted,” Malki said.
The parents, Dacia Mariela Pacheco Galindo and Nelson Ramon Espinoza Sierra, came to the United States from Honduras in 2022 with their children and applied for asylum the same year, Siembra said.
Asylum seekers must show that they face dangers to their lives in their home country, and people with criminal records are prevented from seeking asylum. People in the asylum process also have stronger protections against deportations.
Siembra said that the family had no idea that showing up for their meeting would result in deportation.
Pacheco’s sister—the children’s aunt—drove with the family to Charlotte for the hearing and waited in the car, Siembra said. She waited 90 minutes for them to come out, before getting a call from someone who identified themselves as an ICE agent who told her that the family was being detained.
They gave her no further information. Then, the next night, the aunt got a call from Pacheco, who was in Honduras.
The aunt, who was at the press conference but did not speak, said the family told her they were put in a vehicle with tinted windows and could see her in the parking lot as they were driven away.
DHS disputes the circumstances, but offers no evidence
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not respond to an email on Thursday asking for confirmation of the family’s asylum status, the deportation order, or whether the parents were asked if they wanted the children to stay in the US with a relative. But soon after Seimbra’s press conference, DHS posted on X that the family’s and Siembra’s claims were “FAKE NEWS.”
DHS said that the family did not have a pending asylum case, and that a judge had issued a final deportation order after the family failed to show up for a previous immigration hearing.
Siembra said it did not have documentation about the family’s asylum status, but in a press release on Friday morning rejected the DHS framing.
“DHS is asking the public to accept due process on faith, while withholding the basic facts that would prove it,” Malki said in the statement.
“According to family members, the family had faithfully complied with immigration officials since seeking asylum from Honduras, attending regular check-ins and maintaining an active asylum case with no knowledge of any missed appointments or that detention or deportation was imminent,” Siembra said.
Whatever the particulars of a given case, it all takes place in a void, with DHS releasing few if any details or evidence to back their blanket statements.
‘None of this is normal’
In an interview on Thursday, Durham City Councilmember Javiera Caballero said she spent hours on the phone with federal officials trying to get information about the family.
“They’re not sharing where folks were being held, so there was no information on where they had been,” Caballero said.
“I was working frantically to figure it out … then the next day Siembra shared with me that the family had already been deported,” she said.
Detaining people trying to do what is asked of them creates an impossible situation for families, Caballero said.
“We know that folks are getting taken when they’re following the rules, and, and so you’re setting up families for these awful situations of, ‘Well, if I don’t go and check in, then I’m not following the rules, and so then technically I could get picked up,’” she said.
“Then the flip side is, well, ‘I did go and I did follow the rules and you still detained me and my family.’”
NC Sen. Sophia Chitlik, who represents Durham, said that elected officials needed to start doing more to hold ICE accountable.
“ None of this is normal, none of it is acceptable, and we will not stand in silence,” Chitlik said.
To counter this information void, Chitlik said that she and other local lawmakers had agreed to start providing a “protective presence” for families at immigration hearings.
“ We will be witnesses and, to the extent possible, we will document what is happening and we will help to provide rapid response assistance,” Chitlik said.
Siembra has a hotline ( 336-543-0353) to connect families with trained volunteers who can act as escorts to hearings and advocates.
“ We might not be able to stop what is happening, but we can ensure that we can expose it and we can call for the transparency that our law necessitates,” Chitlik said.
Caballero said the community would rally around the family and others in their situation.
“Durham shows up for its neighbors,” she said. “I always bet on us.”
‘We miss her tremendously’
Brandon Daniel, who was named Durham’s teacher of the year in 2020, is Genesis’ fifth grade math and science teacher at Burton. He was not at the press conference, but Mika Twietmeyer, the president of the Durham Association of Educators, read from a message Daniel wrote about Genesis.
“ Genesis is an important part of our classroom and school community,” Daniel wrote.
“She’s a hard worker who never misses school. She is a little scientist and mathematician in our classroom. She’s always ready to explore, experiment, and learn. She’s always ready to help others learn.”
Her family, Daniel said, had taught her well.
“Her character comes from her family. They are loving, kind, and work hard to support their children,” he wrote.
“We are lost without [Genesis]. We miss her smile. We miss her laughter. We miss her tremendously.”
As Twietmeyer spoke, someone quietly interpreted in Spanish for Genesis’ aunt, who listened but said little, tears running down her face.
