A Polish woman walked out of ICE detention on Tuesday after more than a year. Bail had been posted for Beata Siemionkowicz of Illinois. She has held a green card for many years, yet was arrested in 2025 by agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Siemionkowicz was arrested 15 months ago at her daughter’s home in Des Plaines. On Friday, a judge ordered her released on bail. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had 24 business hours to appeal the decision. Siemionkowicz’s attorney said Monday that ICE would allow the family to post bail. The next day, the woman’s daughters posted a photo of the three of them after their mother’s release in Kentucky.
DHS is still seeking Siemionkowicz’s deportation on the basis of two misdemeanor shoplifting charges from 2005 and 2011. “On Friday, an immigration judge found that both these charges and the convictions were the result of domestic violence of which the defendant was a victim,” said Hirsch Joshi, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Federal authorities have also accused Siemionkowicz of using forged documents in Poland to obtain immigration benefits in the United States. Her daughters said a background check conducted in Poland turned up no evidence supporting the allegation.
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Source: Polski.FM
