Ecuadorian software engineer Chantal Rojas released on bond after ICE detention at Denver Airport

Chantal Morales Rojas, a 27‑year‑old Ecuadorian formerly an au pair and now a software engineer living in Oakland, California, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while boarding a flight at Denver International Airport on July 20. She was held at the GEO Detention Facility in Aurora, Colorado, a center that has faced scrutiny over a possible tuberculosis outbreak.

On July 28, federal immigration judge Bobbie Masters ordered her release on a $3,000 bond. Rojas’s attorney, Laura Lichter, said the case illustrates the administration’s increasingly aggressive use of detention, describing it as “weaponizing detentions.” The bond hearing was observed by friends and highlighted a habeas‑corpus challenge to the legality of her arrest and detention.