The son of an East Cobb couple we wrote about last month after their detention on immigration grounds said Friday that his mother has been released, but that his father is still in custody.
Juan Lima wrote on a GoFundMe page he started to pay for his parents’ legal expenses that Sandra Lima was released on bond three weeks ago, “and is now home, healing, and working alongside me to continue our efforts in fighting for my dad’s release, which is priority number 1.”
Lima also wrote that his father, Osnei Lima, was transferred “without warning” from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Georgia to another in Natchez, Miss., more than seven hours away.
“With that being said, please continue praying for our family, and that although what may look like a setback, may actually turn into a divine set-up for God to show off and perform a miracle before our very own eyes,” Juan Lima said in the GoFundMe message.
“We are believing for speedy connections and a divine release for my dad—we will not settle for anything less.”
The Limas emigrated from Brazil in 1999, according to their son, who was an infant at the time, and settled in the East Cobb area, where they have been running a house-cleaning business. Juan Lima said that plainclothes ICE officials visited the Limas’ home on April 30, then took them into custody at the ICE Atlanta office before sending them to a detention facility in Georgia.
But other specifics about the Limas’ situation are lacking.
Juan Lima, who attended Pope High School, has not explained why his parents were being detained. In an interview with former CNN anchor Jim Acosta in early May he indicated that the matter may have involved them overstaying their visas but he didn’t elaborate.
Juan Lima has declined to be interviewed by East Cobb News, saying that “we are trying to proceed with as much caution and wisdom as possible.”
East Cobb News also has left messages with ICE in Atlanta, but has not received any response, and has left a message with ICE seeking information on Osnei Lima’s relocation to Mississippi.
The Limas were detained during a massive nationwide immigration sweep by the Trump administration that has generated widespread controversy, and is being fought in the courts by immigration advocates.
When announcing his parents’ detention in early May, Lima said that they have been model immigrants, with no criminal background and have been very involved in their church.
“I’m just a son trying to advocate for my parents,” Juan Lima told Acosta. “These are the real Americans we need to embrace. . . . Amid the questions, we still have hope.”
The fundraiser for the legal challenge has raised more than $53,000.
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