Eva Helena Mendes, 48, was on her way back to Rhode Island after attending her brother’s funeral overseas.
It was Mendes’ first trip back to Cape Verde since she left there forty years ago.
However, after she handed her passport and green card to Customs and Border Protection officers at Boston’s Logan International Airport, an arrest warrant issued in 2012 but still outstanding appeared on their computer screens.
The officers reportedly told Mendes they needed to hold her overnight until a supervisor could clear her for entry to the U.S.
More than a week later, she is still in custody.
The Boston Globe, which first reported the story, quoted her lawyer, Todd Pomerlau, saying he had not been allowed to speak with his client directly.
“She’s hardly dangerous,” Pomerlau told the Globe. “Hardly a flight risk.”
Mendes pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor shoplifting charge in Rhode Island in 2009. In 2012, she was arrested again on the same charge in Massachusetts. When Mendes failed to show up for arraignment, the judge issued an arrest warrant that remains open.
Friends and neighbors have launched a GoFundMe page to help Mendes defray legal expenses.
“Eva is not a threat to anyone,” the site insists. “She is a mother, a wife, a neighbor, and a kindhearted woman who deserves compassion and due process.”
Mendes’ attorney has petitioned the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts for a Writ of Habeas Corpus.
Judge Richard G. Stearns has ordered customs officials not to remove Mendes from the state without first notifying the court. Stearns has given CBP until Monday to justify her continued detention.
According to court documents, Mendes visited an immigration office in Rhode Island prior to her departure to Cape Verde last month and was reassured she would be allowed back into the country, provided she had her passport and green card in hand.
