On November 18, 2025, during her lunch break at a Cary, North Carolina construction site, 23-year-old Fátima Issela Velasquez-Antonio was detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents. She was handcuffed in front of coworkers, loaded into a van, and transferred across multiple counties. Her arrest was recorded by a colleague, who can be heard pleading on video, “Ay, Fátima,” as her friend was taken away.

Fátima has lived in North Carolina since she was 14. She fled Honduras after her father was murdered by gangs. Her mother died of cancer. She graduated from Corinth Holder High School in Johnston County and had just purchased a home in Wendell with her boyfriend, where they were planning to start a family.

Now she is being held in Stewart Detention Center in Georgia, more than 400 miles from home.

She has no criminal record beyond minor traffic violations. She has been working legally for years and has been pursuing asylum. Yet federal agents, without releasing names or charges, detained her and dozens of others during a workplace raid. Her family only learned her location by calling around to county jails.

We are calling on the Department of Homeland Security to:

• Release Fátima Velasquez-Antonio immediately while her asylum case proceeds
• End all workplace raids targeting immigrant laborers without public transparency
• Provide a public accounting of who has been detained, where they are being held, and on what grounds
• Respect due process and the dignity of individuals who are long-time residents, workers, and community members

This is not what public safety looks like. This is cruelty. It is wrong to tear people from their jobs, homes, and communities without warning and then hide basic information from the public.

Sign this petition to demand justice for Fátima and for every person swept up in these secretive and traumatic raids. North Carolina deserves accountability, not silence.

Photo Credit: Raleigh News & Observer.