Alpharetta woman seeking asylum, detained by ICE for weeks, released on bond

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — An Alpharetta woman who immigration agents arrested and detained for more than three weeks is free and back with her husband.

A judge in El Paso, Texas, granted Daniela Joly Landin a $10,000 bond Wednesday, allowing her to return with her husband to Georgia.

“It was a very special and emotional moment,” her husband, Richard Landin, said, speaking with Channel 2’s Bryan Mims from a hotel room in El Paso.

His mother recorded video of the two walking out of the facility. Smiling and teary-eyed, they embraced one another.

Daniela and Richard met online and were married on Feb. 8 in Alpharetta.

Daniela is 24 years old and from Colombia. She entered the United States in May 2024, presented herself to the U.S. Border Patrol, and applied for asylum.

Asylum seekers are legally allowed into the U.S., according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Her husband said violent paramilitary groups in Colombia put her life in danger.

“They kill people for really just about any justification they can come up with,” Richard said.

A judge denied her asylum application, so she appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals, which has not yet heard her case.

Her husband said on May 12, three Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents knocked on their apartment door, saying Daniela had an order for deportation because her asylum was denied.

She spent about two weeks at the Stewart Detention Center in Columbus but was transferred to the El Paso Service Processing Center in Texas.

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Her immigration attorney, Jameel Manji, of Decatur, told Mims last week that immigrants with pending appeals have typically not been detained. But he said under the Trump administration, ICE agents have been more aggressive, pursuing undocumented immigrants who have been in the country less than two years, whether they’ve broken any laws or not.

“Two years is kind of an arbitrary marker that this administration is using, but basically when someone’s been here less than two years, they consider them prime candidates for expedited removals,” Manji said.

Richard, who talked with Daniela on the phone daily, said the El Paso facility was overcrowded, making living conditions difficult.

“It was so packed that there weren’t any beds left for new arrivals,” he said. “So, there was a fair amount of them sleeping on the floor.”

Dustin Baxter, the attorney who worked to provide Daniela a bond hearing, said the judge granted bond because, “she’s always complied with everything immigration has asked her to do.”

She has attended all of her court appearances and filed all paperwork on time, he said.

In immigration court, defendants have to pay bonds in full and in cash.

Richard said he used his savings, donations from family, and a GoFundMe campaign to raise money.

Speaking in Spanish, Daniela said she’s grateful for everyone who helped in her case, calling this an answered prayer.

Mims sent emails to the Department of Homeland Security seeking a statement about this case, but has not yet received a response.

As for Daniela’s appeal of her asylum denial, her attorneys said that it could take months, or even years, depending on the backlog of cases facing the Board of Immigration Appeals.

“Asylum is very difficult to obtain,” he said. “The bar is extremely high, barring that she was specifically targeted for persecution.”

Her husband is also petitioning for Daniela to gain permanent legal residency because she’s married to a U.S. citizen.

For now, he’s overjoyed to have her in his arms again.

“Honestly, it’s a blessing,” he said. “It’s like an absolute miracle to have her back because I’ve missed her so much these three weeks. I feel like I’m whole again when I’m with her.”