EAST ST. LOUIS - U.S. attorney Rachelle Crowe moved on Feb. 7 to dismiss a complaint of a person in Caseyville who claims the U.S. should have granted her asylum upon her illegal entry from Mexico on the 11th day of the Covid lockdown.
Assistant U.S. attorney Nicholas Biersbach claimed the plaintiff expressed fear of persecution or torture in Honduras, “not in Mexico, the country to which she was expelled.”
The U.S. let the plaintiff stay in Texas long enough to give birth and sent mother and child to Reynosa, Mexico five days later.
About a year later, Homeland Security paroled her family into the U.S.
She filed a false imprisonment suit at U.S. district court last November, seeking compensation for 358 days she spent in Mexico.
The complaint placed her in Caseyville but didn’t give a name.
Her counsel Sarah Harmon of Chicago moved to proceed under a false name.
She claimed identification of mother or father might place them in danger from individuals they fled in Honduras.
She claimed the mother remained in custody throughout her hospital stay with agents in uniform standing guard in her room except during delivery.
The hospital discharged her the next day with her daughter, and was instructed to follow up in a week with a doctor who assisted in delivery.
Agents allegedly took her and her daughter to a detention center that was holding father and son, and they allegedly remained in detention for days with no beds.
Mother and baby allegedly slept on concrete benches or aluminum sheets.
Agents allegedly said they would be expelled to Reynosa due to the Covid virus.
Mother and father knew no one in Reynosa and allegedly would have no place to stay.
They allegedly slept in a park and a generous woman took them into her home the next day.
The mother allegedly couldn’t obtain post natal care, had difficulty walking, and experienced vaginal bleeding.
The lawsuit further claimed that without money the mother could not receive needed medical care.
It also claimed that stitches tore open and plaintiff removed them herself.
“For the remainder of their time in Mexico they survived with help from charities for food and shelter," attorney Harmon wrote.
Assistant U.S. attorney Biersbach’s motion claimed that but for the lockdown order neither the claims nor damages pursuant to those claims would exist.
He claimed quarantine law barred the claims and they must be dismissed with prejudice.
He claimed the complaint suggested that false imprisonment occurred in the U.S. but didn’t allege that she wasn’t appropriately subject to custody in the U.S.
He claimed guidance for the order didn’t suggest that her status as a new mother and any accompanying issues constituted an injury that might make her not amenable to expulsion.
“Indeed, the guidance provided no definition for what constituted an injury but instead left the determination to agents’ training, experience, physical observation, technology, questioning and other considerations," he wrote.
He claimed the guidance called for referral to the proper agency when fear pertained to the country where the alien would be expelled.
“Plaintiff’s alleged fear, however, involved Honduras," he wrote.
He claimed she wasn’t willfully detained in Mexico and her allegations demonstrated an ability to move freely.
District Judge David Dugan set a scheduling conference on March 11 and trial in July 2026