SALT LAKE CITY — After a woman was arrested by ICE at the Salt Lake City International Airport last Wednesday, her family is still trying to cope with the shock and are hoping things work out moving forward.
"It makes me very sad because we're human beings and we don't deserve to be treated like that,” said a close family member, too afraid to show her face or publicize her name. "I think that we don't do anyone any harm. We just go out to earn our daily bread, to earn for our kids. We don't do anything bad, that's against the rules."
On Thursday, ICE told FOX 13 News that the woman in the video being arrested was 39-year-old Marta Brizeyda Renderos Leiva from El Salvador. She was taken into custody last week after a deportation order from 2020.
“She is a woman who had no idea there was a removal order against her,” said Andy Armstrong, a lawyer from Stowell-Crayk working on Leiva’s case.
Leiva is a single mom to four kids who are U.S. citizens.
"She came here always with the hope that she'd have a better future and help her children advance. She's always been dedicated to her children, an exemplary mother, a good neighbor. We've never had problems with anyone,” said Leiva’s family member.
WATCH: Arrests like ICE detainment in airport spark fear among many in Utah
Leiva was ordered by a judge to be deported after not appearing for a court hearing. Armstrong said the notice for Leiva to appear went to an address where she hasn’t lived. She believes it was sent to the notary who helped with the immigration proceedings a couple of years ago.
"She went to this individual to help her fill out the forms, as many immigrants do, go to these services, and we believe that it was his address that was on the form as his address,” Armstrong said.
Leiva also had a valid work permit, till 2029, that was approved in 2024. Her lawyer thought she had all the documents needed, but she was flagged at the airport.
"Her name certainly popped up in an immigration database to show she had a removal order,” said Armstrong. “So ICE went to detain her at the airport because they knew that’s where she would be. Now we know they didn’t choose the airport because they just simply didn’t want to go to their house — they didn’t have a record of where her house was.”
We reached out to ICE and they said she was arrested in a targeted enforcement operation because of that deportation order and her remaining in the United States.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services would have been the ones to grant the work permit, and they could not be reached for comment.
Her attorney stressed that it's up to people to make sure their details are updated to try to avoid situations like these.
"Immigrants that are in immigration court have a responsibility to keep their address updated, with the immigration court and with ICE," Armstrong said. "But they have to know that they have a responsibility, and she did not know that and she never knew her case had been transferred over to ICE."
The lawyers filed a motion to reopen Leiva's case and give her due process.
“I have hope in God and that God will guide each and every one working on this case so that this is resolved as quickly as possible, because she's still the mother of a family and her children really need her," her family member said.
The family has set up a GoFundMe campaign, which can be found HERE.
