With a nostalgic smile, Dailemás Natalí Montana Andrade watches her 6-year-old daughter play with other children inside St. Peter’s Church in Midtown. He carries the weight of the world on his shoulders as he waits, along with a dozen families, to receive immigration guidance.
At 27 years old, Montana Andrade fights two battles: one to achieve the American Dream and another to recover one of her daughters.
The Venezuelan immigrant, mother and Queens resident has spent years appearing in court at 26 Federal Plaza as she attempts to obtain permanent status in New York. It is a long and exhausting process that she hoped to complete on February 10.
Nerves and uncertainty fill the waiting room on the 12th floor, where he waits for a judge to hear his case. While waiting, he talks with other families who also face an uncertain fate. He gets up, picks up a baby and cradles it as if it were his own.
“I hope to be able to return one day and take a class, even if it’s on Saturdays, so that when my daughters grow up they have someone to look up to,” says Montana Andrade.
A week earlier, he appeared in the same courtroom on the same floor, where ICE agents, with their faces covered, prowled the hallways waiting to arrest their “targets,” as federal agents call immigrants attending mandatory hearings.
On February 2, she left the court crying, hugged by immigrant rights defender Father Fabián Arias, fearing for her future. And he doesn’t fight just for her.
Montana Andrade is also fighting to regain custody of her 9-year-old daughter after her abusive ex-partner was detained by ICE last month.
She fled Venezuela to Ecuador and then to Mexico after receiving threats from local gangs. She lived a period of destitution and, as she relates, suffered severe psychological and physical abuse from the father of her two daughters.
In Mexico, Yerson González Serrano took her eldest daughter from her in what she describes as an abusive situation and crossed into the United States on February 2, 2023. She then decided to request asylum in the United States with her youngest daughter.
She entered the country with the girl and traveled to New York for her first asylum hearing on May 16, 2023. She joined the city’s shelter system while trying to reunite with her oldest daughter.
Congressman Dan Goldman’s office was able to confirm that Serrano was detained by ICE in Albany in early January and remains in Buffalo in deportation proceedings. Meanwhile, the state transferred the child to Child Protective Services.
“This situation with my daughter has left me a little broken, but I’m not giving up. I’m moving forward for my other girl. I want them both to see me as strong,” she says through tears. “But inside it affects me a lot. I want to be with my daughter.”
Following his February 10 hearing at 26 Federal Plaza, the court set a final date for the asylum trial and required him to submit additional documents that same day. She immediately went to Goldman’s office in Lower Manhattan, where volunteers helped her with the paperwork.
Days later, Child Protective Services granted her temporary custody of her oldest daughter. On February 15, Montana Andrade smiles when she sees her family reunited again. Now she wakes up to the sound of her daughters talking and laughing together, rebuilding the bond that distance put to the test.
On March 13, he must return to 26 Federal Plaza to continue his asylum process.
Her story moved attorney Alexander Carrión, from the Carrion Law Firm, who took on her case for free. He assures that the trauma he has experienced includes family conflicts, arbitrary arrests in Venezuela and threats linked to gangs associated with the government.
However, he warns that under the current administration even strong cases face greater obstacles. She explains that victims of domestic violence previously had a better chance of obtaining asylum, but recent decisions have limited that path.
Even so, Montana Andrade can also request asylum due to political persecution after being targeted by a Venezuelan police officer.
“I just want to put my documents in order, work and not disappoint those who made this possible with so much love,” she says gratefully. “It’s a great blessing. I want to support them and help their dreams come true too.”
