Greg OwenDecember 21, 2025, 5:00 pm ESTShutterstock
A same-sex female couple in Pennsylvania is suffering through a “Kafkaesque nightmare” after one of the women was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when she showed up for a regularly scheduled immigration check-in.
ICE agents detained her and shipped her to a detention center in California.
Xiomara Suarez, 28, arrived in the U.S. in 2022 seeking asylum after fleeing Peru, where she was stalked and endured a violent sexual assault based on her sexual orientation. In a sworn declaration to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials reviewed by Advocate, Suarez said Peruvian police refused to acknowledge her complaints or offer protection, and she feared for her life.
Suarez was admitted to the U.S. on “parole” as her request for permanent status was processed.
In February, Suarez married her then-girlfriend, Grazi Chiosque, 29, an American citizen. The couple hoped to adjust Suarez’s immigration status and smooth the way for her to obtain a green card. They filed the required documents in May.
Before that request was processed, however, Suarez was swept up in a wave of detentions by ICE at courthouses targeting immigrants scheduled for hearings — only to be arrested and shipped to detention centers despite their legal non-criminal status.
Suarez was now one of them.
Chiosque says her wife is enduring degrading and isolating conditions at the Adelanto ICE detention facility in Southern California, where she’s been detained since September.
“There’s mold in the food,” Chiosque said. “You don’t have any privacy.”
“She was put into shackles,” Suarez’s wife added. “She told me that crying because it really made her feel like she did something that was wrong, and she didn’t.”
Far from expediting Suarez’s immigration status, the couple’s decision to marry may have only complicated Suarez’s legal claim.
Earlier this month, she was scheduled for back-to-back appearances with government officials. The first was with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to adjudicate her spousal petition. The second was before an immigration judge related to her detention and status in the country.
Chiosque flew from Pennsylvania to help Suarez through the process.
At the first appointment, a supervisor with Citizenship and Immigration Services told Chiosque, referring to her wife, “USCIS does not have jurisdiction because she’s detained.”
“The immigration judge would have to adjudicate on both,” Chiosque was told.
But at that hearing, the explanation flipped, Chiosque said.
“‘No, I don’t have jurisdiction on the I-130,” the judge told Suarez, referring to her spousal petition. “There’s nothing I can do.”
“If USCIS does not want to give you an interview,” he added, “contact your congressman.”
The couple had hoped their marriage claim would help expedite Suarez’s permanent residency. Now it was keeping her behind bars.
“USCIS says it’s not them because she’s detained. And the judge says it’s not them, it’s USCIS,” Chiosque said.
Suarez was returned to detention. Her next immigration hearing is scheduled for January 28.
The couple’s legal limbo is indicative of a broader, and intentional, pattern by ICE and the Trump administration, said Álvaro M. Huerta, director of litigation and advocacy at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center.
“This administration is separating and trapping families like Xiomara and Grazielli in a Kafkaesque nightmare, with the clear intention of making life so unbearable that they abandon all hope,” Huerta said. “It’s not only a policy failure, but also a betrayal of LGBTQ immigrant families who deserve dignity, safety, and the chance to thrive.”
“It feels like we’re begging,” said Chiosque, whose wife sits in detention a continent away.
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ICE tore her away from her wife. Now she’s suffering in an endless legal limbo.
Scottie's Playtime 
Why am I not surprised at this situation under the Trump administration?
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Hi Barry. I really do think that for a lot of the people in tRump’s administration cruelty is the point. They get off on and enjoy so much all the pain and harm they cause. It is a thing I don’t understand nor want to.
On a different note, do you celebrate the holiday season? Are there different regional events or traditions? Best wishes.
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Yes, we celebrate the festive season. Think if it as being the equivalent of your Xmas/holiday season, Thanksgiving and Your Summer holiday season all rolled into one. Schools closed around mid-December and don’t reopen until the last week of January or first week of February. Christmas Day, Boxing Day. New Years Day and the day after New Year are statutory holidays which regulates what businesses can open, for how many hours and what additional benefits must be given to employees who work on those days. Many people like to book a few days of their annual leave for the days between Christmas and New Year. In fact many businesses close at this time. Taking 3 days leave gives you 9 consecutive days off work – the 4 statutory holidays, a 2 day weekend plus 3 days of leave. Those statutory holidays are ‘Mondayised” which means if any of them fall on a weekend, they are moved to the first available business day.
Also. religion doesn’t play a major role in NZ life. Only around 30% of the population claim any religious affiliation at all (and for the purposes of statistics, atheists and agnostics are included in religious affiliation along with Christians, Muslims, Hindus, even Pastafarians), so it’s much more of a secular occasion here than it is in the US. And thankfully No NZ politician will risk their career by invoking God’s blessing on the nation as almost every politician in the US does. When was the last time a US politician didn’t end any speech with “God bless America!”?
I guess the biggest difference from the Northern Hemisphere is that the celebrations are in Summer so we’re not confined to the indoors. Family gatherings are just as likely be centred around the barbeque in the backyard, or at a park or on the beach. as being indoors. As for food, early settlers brought their festive winter favourite dishes with them and over the decades have been complemented with seasonal dishes more appropriate for the Southern Hemisphere summer. So you’ll see glazed ham and a roast leg of lamb competing for table space with a selection of cold meats from the delicatessen . You’ll see a traditional steamed Xmas pudding alongside a pavlova, trifle and tiramisu, and a selection of roast vegetables alongside a selection of summer salads. The term “eclectic” comes to mind when thinking of the dishes you’ll see at a typical NZ Christmas gathering.
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Thank you so very much Barry. What a wonderful country you live in. To accept local others celebrations and to welcome those not of “your group” without any anger or social outcry is grand. I am off to bed with dreams that we can all live as your country does. Best Whishes. Scottie
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