Esther Ngoy Tekele spent 11 days locked in Vermont’s only women’s prison after returning from a family wedding in Canada. The 24-year-old green card holder had lived in Burlington for four years, paid her taxes, and never been arrested. Border agents at Highgate Springs detained her anyway.
Her crime, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement: getting married four days before entering the United States while her green card listed her as single.
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What Happened at the Border
Tekele and her family crossed into Vermont around 11 PM on July 6, 2025. The Congolese singer had just performed at a friend’s wedding. She’d made the same trip multiple times before without problems.
Border agents pulled them over. Everyone went inside to wait.
Three hours passed. An officer finally spoke. The family could leave. Except Tekele.
“He was like ‘yeah I think other people are free to go’ but ‘Esther’, my sister, ‘has to stay here. She cannot leave here,'” her brother Coco Ngoy told NBC5.
The wait continued. Nineteen hours total. Ngoy left at 5:30 AM to get his sister food. When he came back, she was gone.
“Nobody would tell me where she was,” Ngoy said. “They said, ‘We don’t know where she is. You need to leave.'”
Three Days to Find Her
The family contacted the Association of Africans Living in Vermont. Congresswoman Becca Balint’s office joined the search. Three days later, they located Tekele at Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington.
Her attorney, Nathan Virag, couldn’t reach her for two days. Border Protection agents questioned Tekele for hours before transferring her to ICE custody. She couldn’t call anyone. She doesn’t speak English.
“They were not giving us information, they were not letting her call us, none of that,” Virag said.
ICE accused Tekele of lying on her visa application about her marital status. The agency claimed she knowingly misrepresented herself to obtain permanent residency.
Virag called it false. “This is a person who’s never been in trouble with the law. Pays her taxes, strong community member, helps refugees and other folks coming in the country,” he said.
The Facts:
- Lawful permanent resident since 2021
- Mother of a 2-year-old son
- Primary caregiver for her mother, who survived multiple strokes
- No criminal record
- Made multiple prior trips to Canada without incident
While She Was Gone
Tekele’s mother had to manage alone. The woman barely recovered from her own strokes. Her husband died from COVID-19. She doesn’t drive. Now she had a 2-year-old grandson to care for.
“She can’t take care of herself, and now she has to care for a 2-year-old,” Ngoy said. “My mom doesn’t drive. Esther drives her to all her appointments, checks her blood pressure, helps her with so many things, paying rent and all that.”
The family believes they were racially profiled. “I can say we were treated like slaves because you could even tell from the body language, from the nonverbal language how disrespectful some of the officers were,” Ngoy told reporters.
The Release
Judge Natalie Smith ordered Tekele released on $7,500 bond during a July 17 virtual hearing in Massachusetts immigration court. The Vermont Freedom Fund paid it. The federal government waived its right to appeal.
Tekele walked out of Chittenden Regional on July 18. She’d been detained 11 days. Her 2-year-old son was waiting.
The reunion didn’t end her legal trouble. The federal government still wants to deport her. A July 31 hearing was scheduled for the government to submit removal evidence.
The Response
Balint issued a statement to VTDigger: “Wrongly detaining lawful permanent residents at a standard crossing speaks to the lawless and inhumane immigration agenda coming from the White House. Nobody with legal status in this country should have to live in fear of being held in a jail cell at any moment.”
Virag secured a temporary restraining order preventing ICE from transferring Tekele out of state during proceedings. He argued that detaining someone over a marital status discrepancy violates constitutional protections, especially without prompt legal proceedings.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection declined to comment on ongoing litigation. The acting U.S. Attorney declined to comment. ICE didn’t respond to multiple requests for information.
What Happens Now
The esther ngoy tekele ice detention case remains unresolved. The July 31 hearing passed without public information about its outcome. Federal deportation proceedings typically take months or years. Tekele remains in Vermont with her family while the government decides whether a marital status discrepancy justifies removing a legal resident who’s built a life here for four years.
Her family is still asking the same question they asked the night she disappeared from the border crossing: Why her?
