NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — A woman who has lived in the U.S. for nearly 50 years and had no criminal record was detained outside of her Lakeview, La., home by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents last month, much to the shock of her family and friends.
After nearly three weeks in custody, her family confirmed she has been released, and a Republican lawmaker may be to thank.
In June, Mandonna Kashanian’s daughter Kaitlyn Milne told Nexstar’s WGNO that her mother had been taken away by ICE agents while gardening outside her home. Sarah Gerig and her husband watched it all happen in real-time, claiming ICE agents gave no explanation.
“When … we saw her getting taken, I mean, it was one of our worst fears, but we were shocked,” Gerig said. “I mean, it was in front of her house, and she, she was in her yard. My husband ran out to try to talk to her.”
Kashanian’s daughter, Kaitlynn Milne, says she was able to track her mother’s phone to find out where she was: a jail in Hancock County, Miss., and then to detention centers in Jena and Basile.
Kashanian came to the U.S. on a student visa when she was 17 years old. She reportedly applied for asylum but was denied. According to Milne, Kashanian was granted a stay of deportation in 1978, allowing her to stay in the U.S. under supervision.
“She checks in regularly,” Milne said last month. “She had her next appointment on July 21. The only appointment that she might not have been able to walk through the door for was 2024 when they were saying no one can come in to make an appointment online.”
ICE claims Kashanian was ordered by a judge to leave the U.S. and did not.
On Tuesday, a family member confirmed to WGNO that she was released on Monday night.
After a surge of community support for Kashanian, Republican House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who represents Louisiana’s 1st Congressional District, including the New Orleans suburbs, told local media outlet WDSU that he asked the Department of Homeland Security to give Kashanian “a fair shake.”
Scalise said Kashanian should be judged on “her life’s work” and role in her community.
“When she was picked up, we looked at it and said, ‘Are they really looking at it the right way, objectively?’” Scalise told WDSU. “And so they took a second look at it.”
Scalise’s intervention was “absolutely crucial” to behind-the-scenes advocacy to secure Kashanian’s release, her attorney Ken Mayeaux told The Associated Press. What happens next for Kashanian’s legal status is still being worked out, he said.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement that “the facts of this case have not changed.”
“Mandonna Kashanian is in this country illegally,” McLaughlin said. “She exhausted all her legal options.”
Rep. Stephanie Hilferty, a Republican who represents Kashanian’s community, said she had been a “devoted mother and wife, a caretaker, neighbor and dedicated volunteer” with Habitat for Humanity, her local school district and other organizations.
More than 100 of Kashanian’s neighbors wrote letters of support for her, which Hilferty told the AP that she and Scalise had shared with President Donald Trump’s administration.
“She’s just been an incredible volunteer and servant to our Lakeview community, everybody knows her because of all she gives and does,” said Connie Uddo, a neighbor of Kashanian’s who leads the NOLA Tree Project where Kashanian and her husband have volunteered for years.
Some neighbors wrote letters addressed to Trump expressing support for his immigration policies but saying that some people like Kashanian were being detained improperly and urging him to reconsider her case.
“She’s meeting her obligations,” Milne told the AP following her detention. “She’s retirement age. She’s not a threat. Who picks up a grandmother?”
Other Iranians living in the U.S. for decades have also been picked up by immigration authorities, and U.S. military strikes on Iran have raised concerns that more may be taken into custody and deported. Iran was one of 12 countries subject to a U.S. travel ban that took effect this month.
Immigration authorities are seeking to arrest 3,000 people a day under directives from the Trump administration.
Kashanian’s attorney, Mayeaux, said he represents other clients who had built lives in the U.S. over decades and are now being detained and deported.
“There is still a tremendous amount of heartache that is happening for people,” Mayeaux said. “The difference is they lived quiet lives and didn’t have access to political power to change the outcomes in their cases.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
