Mum detained by Border Patrol after family holiday 'too scared to leave home'

A mum detained by Customs Border Patrol for ten days after returning from a family vacation despite owning a valid green card has been left with such terrible PTSD she can barely leave her home.

Jemmy Jimenez-Rosa, 42, from Canton, Massachusetts, was stopped at an airport in August alongside her husband, Marcel Rosa, 38, and their three young daughters, ages three, six, and seven. Despite holding a freshly renewed green card, Jemmy, who moved to the US from Peru when she was nine, was detained while traveling back from to Mexico, without any formal notice or explanation.

Jimenez Rosa was held for ten days in federal custody and transferred between several detention centers in Massachusetts and Maine - including one that houses only male detainees, reports say.

READ MORE: Woman spent final Christmas with coma partner before withdrawing life support

READ MORE: Morrisons and Sainsbury's shoppers spot new Babybel flavour and say same thing

Now released, Marcel says his wife is suffering from severe psychological trauma, has severe anxiety and panic attacks in public spaces, requiring psychiatric care, and is unable to be alone in crowds. The symptoms have become so severe that basic family outings are now impossible. "She's not the person she was before," Marcel said.

"We live in the most advanced country in the world, more advanced in everything - in medicine, hospitals, everything. Nobody deserves to be treated like that. That's inhumane.

"Since everything transpired, we really can't even go to any place that has a lot of people. She has all types of panic attacks as if she's having a seizure."

Jemmy is a mother of four, including an 18-year-old son from a previous relationship, and the anxiety has made it difficult for her to fully care for all of her children. "About two weeks ago, we went to Dave and Buster's with the kids," Marcel said. "Within ten seconds of us walking through the door, she started shaking and panicking.

"She has to be around someone like me or another close family member because she just can't be in public by herself anymore. It wasn't like this before. This is apparently a new norm for us."

The August 11 incident at Boston Logan Airport happened when the family were returning from a vacation in Mexico. "The CBP agent essentially told us to follow them downstairs for further questioning," he said. "They handed back all the US passports, including my children's, but they kept my wife's Peruvian passport and her green card."

It later emerged the detention appeared be tied to a misdemeanor marijuana charge back to 2003, when Jimenez Rosa was a 20-year-old college student. She was arrested for possession of a small amount of marijuana, pleaded guilty, and completed probation - and her case was sealed over a decade ago.

The charge carried no jail time, only probation, and was later pardoned by the Massachusetts governor as part of a clemency initiative for minor drug offenses. Marcel, a former TSA employee, said they were never told why Jemmy was being held."To this day, we've never been told," he said.

During detention, Jemmy's diabetes, allergies, and mental health challenges became an urgent concern. Marcel said Jemmy was rushed to an emergency room twice in the first five days, including one visit where her blood pressure was recorded at 198.

He said he was unable to contact Jemmy for five days and efforts to get information from CBP were met with alarming responses. "When I called CBP seeking updates, a supervisor made a disturbing comment," Marcel said. "I was told they will notify next of kin if she dies." The family filed a federal habeas corpus lawsuit within 24 hours of Jemmy's detention.

She was transferred between detention facilities in Burlington, Massachusetts, and Portland, Maine, before being released after 10 days without being charged or posting bond. Todd C. Pomerleau, 48, the family's Boston-based immigration attorney, condemned the government's handling of the case.

"We never once got any formal oral or written notice, any explanation at all for her detention," Pomerleau said. "It shouldn't take you ten days to figure out why you're holding somebody in a jail cell in the United States of America.

"It's a blatant violation of due process. I'm convinced they're trying to crush her and get her to give up her green card. My partner and I have been doing this for nearly 50 years combined, and we've never seen anything so grotesque happen to somebody on such a paltry set of facts."

A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help cover the family's mounting legal and medical expenses related to the detention.