Maryknoll lay missioner Heidi Cerneka, who serves as an immigration attorney at the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, is quoted in this Buzzfeed article, which examines the perils for older detainees in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
Heidi is the attorney for Mariela, the 60-year-old Colombian woman quoted at the beginning of the article.
Heidi’s quote comes at the end of the story:
“I am listening to a woman who knows what is going on, who runs a business in her home country, who should never have been detained, in freefall panic. Each time she calls, she is more anxious and more panicked,” her attorney, Heidi Cerneka at Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, said. “She said, ‘I don’t want to die here!’”