NC nursing student’s life upended after being detained by ICE

Allison Bustillo Chinchilla came to America as a child from Honduras and grew up to be a certified nursing assistant. Under President Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy, she’s spent the past five months in ICE detention.

In April 2014, Allison Bustillo Chinchilla came to the US at the age of eight when her mother, Keily Chinchilla, brought her over from Honduras on foot through Mexico, along with her five-year-old brother, Hanzel. 

The journey took nearly two weeks, and the family endured various dangers along the way.

In the 11 years since, Bustillo Chinchilla graduated from Crest High School in Cleveland County, partially completed an associate’s degree in nursing from Cleveland Community College, became a certified nursing assistant (CNA), and at 20 years old, received a scholarship to attend Gardner-Webb University to pursue a bachelor’s degree in nursing.

Chinchilla, who has a job in construction in Uptown Charlotte, describes her daughter as hardworking and compassionate. Bustillo Chinchilla often cares for her three younger siblings—Hanzel and two more brothers born in the US after the family arrived from Honduras.

“She is a good daughter,”  Chinchilla told Cardinal & Pine in an interview via a translator. “She likes taking care of elderly people in her work, and also takes care of her autistic brother. She’s a young woman who is very dedicated to her studies. She came here as a child full of dreams and goals, and has worked hard every day to achieve them.”

But Bustillo Chinchilla’s life, and her family’s, was upended when agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) broke down the door to their apartment in Charlotte on Feb. 20. 

That raid ultimately led to Bustillo Chinchilla’s detention by US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). For five months, as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation program, she has been detained in ICE custody at the Stewart Detention Facility in Lumpkin, Georgia. It’s a facility operated by CoreCivic, a private prison contractor. 

In separate conversations with Cardinal & Pine, both mother and daughter recounted the events of that day and what set Bustillo Chinchilla’s separation from her family into motion.

A life turned upside down

On the morning of Feb. 20, Bustillo Chinchilla was at home taking care of her three brothers. While cooking breakfast and getting them ready for school, she saw several vehicles pull up to the family’s apartment. Fearful, she went into one of the bedrooms to call her mom, who was at work.

Moments later, FBI agents busted through the door, armed with weapons, but according to Bustillo Chinchilla, no search warrant was offered. Officers said they were seeking a man who Chinchilla claims had rented a room in the apartment last year, but no longer lived there. Bustillo Chinchilla, who was living in Louisiana when the man was a tenant, said she never met him. She recalled the FBI saying they were looking for him as part of a drug trafficking investigation.

She said 15-20 officers then entered the apartment with guns drawn on her and her three siblings. Bustillo Chinchilla put her hands up in an effort to convey that she and her siblings were not a threat, hoping to deescalate the situation.

Initially, Bustillo Chinchilla said FBI agents told her they were not ICE and wouldn’t involve the immigration agency.

“They told me that they were not ICE, and I did not need to worry. That they were not going to turn us over to them,” she said.

“The FBI was conducting a court authorized search of a residence allegedly related to a drug trafficking investigation,” an FBI Charlotte spokesperson told Cardinal & Pine.

Agents then allowed her to call her mom to return home, Bustillo Chinchilla said. When Chinchilla entered the apartment, armed agents were present, along with her children. She requested a search warrant, which she said wasn’t provided.

Despite being told ICE wouldn’t be involved, the FBI called the agency anyway, which then detained Bustillo Chinchilla and Chinchilla. 

When asked about Bustillo Chinchilla’s claim that an FBI agent initially said ICE would not be involved in the matter, the FBI Charlotte spokesperson told Cardinal & Pine that “The FBI does not have authority over who ICE detains.” 

“Basically, they did not give her an exact reason why they were going to detain us,” Bustillo Chinchilla said. “They just told us they were going to turn us over to ICE. That’s when I started to freak out. I was suffering from very bad, severe anxiety and had a panic attack.”

Chinchilla said when she requested time to find childcare for the younger children with citizenship, an ICE official threatened to call social services to take them. They were eventually placed with a family friend, but remained shaken after seeing Hanzel, then 17, handcuffed by ICE agents, and removed from the apartment in chains.

Afterwards, he, along with his mom and sister, was taken to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) office in Charlotte.

A family separated 

The three were placed in a Holiday Inn near Charlotte-Douglas International Airport early the next morning while immigration officials sorted out their situation. Chinchilla said paramedics were called and confirmed that Bustillo Chinchilla suffered from severe panic attacks during this time, but that the DHS agent ignored the need for additional medical help and sent the family back to the hotel.

Chinchilla explains that on Feb. 23, she was given the option to be sent to Mexico, alongside her entire family.

“‘The only solution I have for you is to go to Mexico with all your children,’” she recalled being told by a DHS agent.

Confused, she tried to explain that they were Honduran, not Mexican, and that two of her children have American citizenship.

“I have two citizen children,” she pleaded with them. “My son needs me. He is sick, has treatments here, and we do not have a criminal record to be treated in this way, and we have rights.” 

Chinchilla claimed the DHS agent told her, “I don’t care, take them also with you, the two citizen children.”

When she refused to agree to the deportation of her entire family, Chinchilla explained that the agent became very upset, and told her, “Just remember that your daughter is of legal age.”

At the time, she said she didn’t think much of the comment, but did take it as a threat. 

Wiping away tears as she spoke, Chinchilla recalled that the next day, Bustillo Chinchilla was told she would be sent to a detention facility in Georgia and separated from her mother, siblings, and community in North Carolina. She had chains placed on her hands, feet, and waist.

“She cried horribly and said ‘mom I don’t want to go,’” Chinchilla said. “To say goodbye to my daughter in that moment was very difficult.”

Chinchilla and Hanzel were ultimately released, but have been made to wear ankle monitors that allow them to travel within North and South Carolina, but not beyond, she said.

Bustillo Chinchilla, meanwhile, recalled the fear she felt when she realized she wouldn’t be set free with her mom and brother, and would instead remain in detention, alone. 

“I do suffer from very, very, bad panic attacks and severe anxiety. At that time I could say… five or six panic attacks in that little cell that they put me in, as I was watching my mom being released,” she said. “It was a very sad, very horrible, horrible moment for myself and my mom as well. She would only try to tell me that everything was going to be okay, and that I was going to be released, and that nothing was going to happen to me.”

Chinchilla believes Hanzel was released because he was underage, but said she wasn’t given an explanation why she was released, while Allison wasn’t. 

Detained but still dreaming of a life in America

On the 2024 campaign trail, and since taking office, President Donald Trump pledged to remove the “worst of the worst” undocumented immigrants from the country. However, data shows that the vast majority of those detained or deported under his plan have no criminal record. As of June 29th, data found that over 70% of people in ICE detention facilities had no criminal record and no charges pending.

Bustillo Chinchilla is among them.

She explained that her attire at the detention facility indicates that she has not been charged with a crime.

“I’m wearing a blue uniform, meaning that I have no criminal record at all,” she said. “The only charge that I have, which is the immigration part of my case, which is the ‘arriving alien,’ I have nothing else at all.”

Her mother is pleading with the Trump administration to let her go.

“My daughter is a good girl who deserves a chance to be here at home with her family,” Chinchilla said of Bustillo Chinchilla. “I want to tell the president that he should act in accordance with his conscience. Do not damage the future of this country.”

She said her daughter is not a criminal, and alleges unfair treatment towards her by DHS and CoreCivic staff. In June, Wired reported that Bustillo Chinchilla’s health had deteriorated since arriving at the facility.

“From physically to emotionally, I have not been doing well. For example, the food in here has made me very sick,” she told Cardinal & Pine. 

Bustillo Chinchilla also said she’s not getting needed medications at the facility.

“I am currently struggling with my medication refills, and that has been an issue ever since I got here. They are not treating me properly, how I’m supposed to be treated,” she said.

She suffers from scoliosis, a condition that results in a curved spine. Chinchilla says her daughter is not receiving adequate treatment for the condition. 

“They are treating her worse than a criminal. She is very sick, and I need her to return home soon,” she said.

In a statement, CoreCivic spokesperson Ryan Gustin said Bustillo Chinchilla “is being regularly monitored by facility medical staff, with all known medical issues being addressed.” 

Gustin said that prescribed medication is either managed by detainees or by the facility’s health services team, and that pharmacy nurses “review the medication orders and promptly inform the ordering physician when renewals are required.”

“The safety, health and well-being of the individuals entrusted to our care and our dedicated staff at all our facilities, including Stewart Detention Center (SDC) is our top priority,” Gustin added. “All detainees have daily access to sign up for medical care, including mental health services.”

Despite the detention and separation from her family and what she’s personally endured this year, Bustillo Chinchilla told Cardinal & Pine she still wants a life in the US.

“I consider this my home,” she said. “I feel very horrible, what they are doing to me. This is the place that I consider my home. I consider English as my first language instead of Spanish. Yes, I do still want to continue living here despite everything that has happened to me.”

ICE did not respond to requests for comment for this story.