A U.S. Citizen Held His Phone to the Mic. His Wife Was Calling from Inside ICE Detention.
Gabriela Sousa called her own rally from Baker County Detention Center. Her husband Brandon Garrison called it what it is: a system designed to make people give up and leave.
JACKSONVILLE, FLA. — Last Friday evening, city residents and organizers with the Jacksonville Immigrant Rights Alliance (JIRA) gathered outside Jacksonville’s federal courthouse to demand the release of Venezuelan immigrant Gabriela Sousa.
Sousa’s husband, Brandon Garrison held his cellphone to the mic at the center of the rally. On the other line was none other than his wife – calling from the inside of Baker County Detention Center – or what Florida Gov. Desantis infamously dubbed ‘deportation depot.’
“I wanna say thank you, really,” said Sousa to the crowd, choking up over the phone.
For the past five months Sousa has been transferred between ICE detention facilities and county jails in – what their legal team says – is a concerted effort by the government to evade detention limits and prolong incarceration by shuffling detainees between facilities.
Sousa and Garrison were both arrested during a misunderstanding with local police – and the charges were later dropped. While Garrison was able to bail out, Sousa was transferred to ICE custody, kickstarting their current legal nightmare.
Legal Limbo
Garrison told Migrant Insider the judge overseeing Sousa’s case, Judge Pratt (chosen by President Trump in May) has failed to accept a writ of habeas corpus petition filed by their legal team. Without habeas corpus, Sousa can’t have a bond hearing and thus has no means to challenge her detention, preventing her release and effectively trapping her in ICE custody.
Judge Dalton, a senior judge in the same district court, granted habeas corpus to another Venezuelan woman by the name of Daniela Guiaiquire – whose case Garrison says is nearly identical to Sousa’s.
The legal discrepancy arises from the government’s misapplication of sections 1225 and 1226 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), section 1225 allows for mandatory detention of immigrants detained at the border – often without bond hearings. Section 1226 allows for immigrants who were already in the U.S. with pending immigration cases (like Sousa) to have bond hearings should they be detained, providing a pathway for release.
“I don’t understand how two people can have identical cases in front of a court system and get different results based on what judge they get,” Garrison told Migrant Insider outside Jacksonville’s federal courthouse.
Both Guiaiquire and Sousa entered the United States after fleeing Venezuela. Sousa entered under a Biden-era humanitarian parole program granting TPS (temporary protected status) to immigrants from countries in crisis like Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The second Trump administration has since rescinded these programs, rendering those who used them vulnerable to detention and deportation.
Like Guiaiquire, Sousa’s immigration case is pending. Under the law, this should protect her from prolonged detention and afford her a bond hearing – and thus a pathway to release – under section 1226. Due to Judge Pratt’s failure to follow previous court interpretation and grant habeas, Sousa remains trapped, unable to plead her case and challenge her detention’s legality.
In Judge Dalton’s granting of habeas corpus for Guiaiquire, he names Judge Pratt 9 times, criticizing the newer judge’s recent rulings in similar cases.
Time is limited and the stakes are high. If Judge Pratt fails to grant habeas corpus before Monday, March 30, Garrison and Sousa will be forced to petition for voluntary departure. Because of the second Trump administration’s cancellation of TPS for immigrants like Sousa who entered on humanitarian parole, by April 19 Sousa will have accrued over one year of unlawful presence, barring her from reentering the country for ten years.
Present and Future
In a video published by OwlMedia, immigrant women inside Sousa’s same detention center are subject to conditions unimaginable to most.
The footage shows women taking turns sharing their living predicaments, displaying the dirty, used underwear they’re expected to don, and the insulation they’re told to sleep on as mattresses and pillows.
“The conditions are very bad and I think that’s intentional to try and get people to hurry up and self deport,” said Garrison, addressing the crowd at JIRA’s protest outside Jacksonville’s federal courthouse.
If Judge Pratt doesn’t grant habeas corpus and Garrison and Sousa move forward with voluntary departure, Garrison told Migrant Insider he plans to move with Sousa to Colombia – a country he’s never been to with a language he doesn’t speak – to keep his family together.
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This is just heartbreaking. Nicely written, Logan.
Let Gabby go, and give her Habus Corpus. Her and her husband need to be treated as Human Beings who have feelings and future plans just like the rest of us. We never need to be waterboarding immigrants just to please some sorry ass Republican that is out of his mind bat sheet crazy. PS. That is just for show as he is worse than just Bat Sheet Crazy as we are seeing everyday.