Lila Romero, 47, a Venezuelan psychologist living in Dallas, Texas, arrived in the U.S. in 2024 on a tourist visa and began applying for asylum. She was arrested during a traffic stop on January 9 after driving a family business vehicle without proper license plates, and was held for about three and a half months at the Bluebonnet detention center in Anson, Texas. While detained, she informally provided therapy to other women, diagnosing high levels of anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia and stress-related physical symptoms such as nervous hives, and she coped with her own confinement by treating the experience as a job. She now works helping immigrants and families affected by detentions and deportations, and has an immigration hearing scheduled for late September.