Wake County woman Fatima Velazquez Antonio awaits key step in asylum case
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- A Wake County resident detained at her job in Raleigh by immigration agents in November is potentially one step closer to securing a permanent future in the United States after a years-long wait on her asylum case.
Federal agents detained Fatima Velazquez Antonio in November as part of Operation Charlotte's Web. She was held in a detention center in Georgia for more than a month before a judge ordered her release.
Velazquez Antonio, of Wendell, came to the United States as an unaccompanied minor at age 14 from Honduras. Her attorney said she did not have an arrest warrant at the time she was detained and that a judge had dismissed removal proceedings before her arrest.
A meeting scheduled for next week will determine whether her asylum case is approved, a case her attorney said has been pending since 2019.
"There are cases that we have recently filed in the past months, and they are being scheduled within a month of filing. So it seems that right now, the focus is more on the most recent cases that are filed, so a lot of cases tend to be pending for many, many years," said Jaquelinne Murillo Figueroa of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. Murillo Figueroa is the attorney representing Velazquez Antonio.
"I feel happy that I finally have the opportunity to explain my case to the official, but I also feel a little anxious about my ability to legally stay in the country," said Velazquez Antonio.
Velazquez Antonio is set to meet with a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agent next week in Arlington, Virginia. If her asylum case is approved, it would move her one step closer on the path to citizenship.
