Maria Perez, a Guatemalan woman seeking asylum from domestic violence, was arrested by ICE in Nashville on May 19 without a warrant while preparing to take her two children to a medical appointment. She is the nursing mother of a 10-month-old infant and a 2-year-old son with Down syndrome. Since her arrest, Perez has been held at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center, nearly 700 miles away from her children, who are now in the care of a neighbor. Her sudden separation from her nursing infant has caused her physical harm, compounded by her diabetes. Perez has no criminal history and has complied with all immigration process requirements since entering the United States in 2022. Her attorneys argue the arrest violated the U.S. Constitution and ICE's own policy against detaining nursing mothers without extraordinary circumstances. Multiple organizations are submitting a formal complaint to the Department of Homeland Security seeking her immediate release, and her children have missed critical medical appointments.