Thread by @RAICESTEXAS

🚨URGENT: Help us stop Nelly's deportation. Nelly is in detention in TX and can be deported on Tuesday. She qualifies for an initial #DACA application, but because @USCIS refuses to open up the process, regardless of the SCOTUS decision, @ICEgov is refusing to allow her to stay.

Nelly came to the US from El Salvador at age 8 in 1993 and has lived here ever since. She was accused of theft, but her charges were dismissed. Regardless, ICE refuses to release her and now are planning to deport her.

Nelly's health in detention is deteriorating. In her late teens through early 20s, Nelly underwent chemotherapy to treat tumors near her heart. She's in remission now but was having regular six-month checkups all the way until she was taken into ICE custody.

In detention, she has lost roughly 60 pounds because of food allergies and ICE's failure to give her a kosher diet. Nelly is Jewish. Her history of cancer and the rapid weight loss make her especially susceptible to COVID-19. But it hasn't been enough to convince ICE or the BIA.

She's been scheduled for the Tuesday morning flight to El Salvador almost every week for the past several weeks. The only thing delaying her removal is that ICE still hasn't received the BIA's written dismissal of her first appeal, which was decided several weeks ago.

CALL TO ACTION: We need your help to #FreeNelly! Call the ICE San Antonio Field Office at [phone] and leave a message for Field Office Director Joseph M. Correa.

Script: "I demand you release Nylssa Portillo (A072407044). She qualifies for DACA & shouldn't be deported."

You can also email @ICEgov in San Antonio with the same script at [e-mail]. Please #DontLookAway. Nelly and her family need us in this moment.

#FreeNelly now!