‘Our last shot’: Federal judge grants bond hearing for Illinois woman with green card in ICE detention

A federal judge in Kentucky Tuesday ordered that an Illinois green card holder who has been in ICE custody for more than a year be granted a bond hearing, set to take place this week.

Beata Siemionkowicz, a Round Lake mother and green card holder from Poland, filed a petition for habeas corpus in early September. On Nov. 3, United States District Judge Karen Caldwell granted that request, in part because the judge found that her detention violated her due process, and ordered that Siemionkowicz, 57, be granted a bond hearing. Her hearing is scheduled for Thursday morning.

“This is one of the few times in which someone who has been deemed to be mandatorily detained has won this type of additional bond hearing and potential release in this district,” said Hirsh Joshi, an attorney with ACLU of Illinois, which is representing her. “This is a case that is emblematic of a larger problem that the Supreme Court has already agreed that it wants to hear.”

Siemionkowicz’s successful petition for a writ of habeas corpus is a promising sign for other mandatory ICE detainees in the Kentucky district asking for a bond hearing after a prolonged detention, most of whom never were afforded an initial hearing, Joshi said. And Siemionkowicz’s release from detention would be even more promising, he said.

In an email, a spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement said the agency makes “custody determinations daily, on a case-by-case basis in accordance with U.S. law, and various factors to ensure their presence for immigration proceedings or removal from the United States. Despite a historic number of injunctions, DHS is working rapidly and overtime to remove these aliens from detention centers to their final destination — home.”

Siemionkowicz entered the United States legally in 1995, moving to Illinois from her hometown of Bialystok, Poland, according to court records. She has been a permanent resident with a green card since 2003 and, as a divorced, single mom of two, built her life in Round Lake as a commercial cleaner and later a hospice caregiver.

That life was abruptly halted one August afternoon in 2025 when two masked ICE agents in civilian clothes arrested Siemionkowicz in her daughter’s backyard, where she was gardening, according to her daughters, Claudia, 26, and Gabi, 22.

Agents arrested Siemionkowicz on Aug. 2, 2025, for her criminal record of misdemeanor retail theft from Jewel in September 2005 and Kohl’s in October 2011, according to an ICE spokesperson. The agency also claimed she forged documents to obtain immigration benefits in 2001, before her green card status.

According to her daughters and Lake County court records, Siemionkowicz paid her dues years ago through fines and a period of supervised release. The sisters say their mom stole kids’ clothes for them during an especially hard time after her divorce.

That long-ago Chicagoland criminal record, which ICE considers crimes involving “moral turpitude,” is what classified Siemionkowicz as a mandatory detainee, a group of immigrants who are not legally entitled to a bond hearing, according to records.

In October, the Supreme Court agreed to review a Trump administration policy denying bond hearings for immigrants as the government carries out a sweeping crackdown.

The justices will consider whether immigrants who have been living in the U.S. have a right to a hearing to determine if they should remain detained while challenging their possible deportation.

Joshi said the high court’s decision could have an effect on immigrants like Siemionkowicz, who have been detained for long periods of time.

“That’s not to say this case in particular will go to the Supreme Court, only to say that this is a product of something that’s been happening over the last few years,” Joshi said. “We’re soon to see if people like Beata can get this kind of bond hearing at all.”

If Siemionkowicz is awarded bond, it does not mean an end to her Dec. 9, 2025, deportation order. It just means she can fight her immigration legal battle from outside the walls of a detention center and with her family, who never stopped supporting her. Gabi is cautiously optimistic that Siemionkowicz’s release, her best-case scenario, may come to fruition.

“Of course, we’re staying hopeful,” Gabi said. “This is our last shot, I think.”

This decision comes just in time. After her habeas petition was filed, Gabi said that her mother was moved to a different, more secure medical wing within the Campbell County Detention Center where the conditions are “way worse” than her previous cell, according to Gabi.

Conditions inside the Campbell County Detention Center made national headlines in August when U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez, from Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District, and other Democrats opened an investigation into the “inhumane conditions” of the northern Kentucky facility following a congressional oversight visit the month prior.

“It’s pretty jarring to see, on the ground, how they’re treating people at Campbell County,” Joshi said. “My only hope is to get Beata out as soon as we can.”

The Associated Press contributed.

akiehl@chicagotribune.com