Indi Veitia was detained by ICE at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport earlier this month while boarding a domestic flight, then spent 21 days in a detention center in Lumpkin, Georgia, and was released on bond — only to be placed under an ankle monitor when she reported to an ICE field office in Indianapolis on Tuesday.
Veitia, a 47-year-old Venezuelan asylum-seeker who came to the US on a visa in 2019 and later applied for asylum, said she believed she was following all legal requirements. She held a valid work permit, a driver’s license, and a receipt from her 2020 asylum application stating she could remain in the US until her case was decided.
According to CNN, as Veitia walked to her gate at Hartsfield-Jackson, ICE officers in plain clothes slammed her against the jetway wall, handcuffed her, and transported her to an unmarked vehicle. She spent the next three weeks in a windowless dormitory with more than 60 women, sharing four toilet stalls and four showers, where she said conditions were “inhumane” and the treatment made her feel like a criminal.
Her case reflects a dramatic shift in immigration enforcement. According to data compiled by the Deportation Data Project and reported by CNN, immigration arrests at US airports have surged to at least 127 detentions in 2026 through early August — compared to just 39 in all of 2025 and only 13 total during the final two years of the Biden administration. The Trump administration has set a goal of 2,000 arrests per day.
Immigration lawyer Jorge Gavilanes, a partner at the Kuck and Baxter law firm in Atlanta who represented Veitia at her bond hearing, told CNN the system has descended into “complete chaos.” He said he now advises clients not to fly domestically and warned that the government is contradicting itself: it issues work permits and driver’s licenses to asylum applicants, yet then arrests them for being in the country.
Veitia is not alone in facing ankle monitor placement. The Guardian reported in August that ICE is now tracking nearly 54,000 immigrants via ankle monitors, a dramatic expansion following a June 2025 memo in which ICE ordered staff to place monitors on all people enrolled in the agency’s Alternatives to Detention program. According to the Washington Post, the shift has led to a revenue boost for the Geo Group, a private prison firm that manufactures the devices.
Gavilanes noted that immigration court backlogs have worsened dramatically. Asylum cases that once took two to four years to reach an interview now take seven to 10 years, he said, while judges have been purged and courts remain overwhelmed. As of June 2026, more than 3.1 million active cases were pending before immigration courts, with 2.3 million people awaiting asylum hearings, according to TRAC immigration data.
Veitia told CNN she had worked her way from a warehouse job to a corporate position at a clothing firm, built a life with her wife in Indiana, and believed her compliance with all legal processes would protect her. “I have done everything that the government have asked me to do,” she said. After her release from detention, she was too traumatized to fly home; friends drove her by car through Alabama to avoid Georgia.
When she reported to the ICE field office in Indianapolis on Tuesday, she emerged with an ankle monitor strapped to her right ankle. “I’m broken,” she told CNN. “There is nothing I can do.”
Sources
- CNN — Indi Veitia’s detention at Atlanta airport, 21-day hold in Lumpkin, Georgia, ankle monitor placement, immigration arrest surge data (127 arrests in 2026), Trump administration’s 2,000-arrest-per-day goal, attorney Jorge Gavilanes’ commentary on immigration court backlogs (7-10 years for asylum interviews), and Veitia’s account of her background and experience.
- The Guardian — ICE now tracking nearly 54,000 immigrants via ankle monitors; June 2025 memo directing ICE to place monitors on all Alternatives to Detention enrollees.
- Washington Post — June 2025 ICE memo on ankle monitor expansion and revenue impact on Geo Group.
- TRAC immigration data — 3.1 million active immigration court cases as of June 2026; 2.3 million people awaiting asylum hearings.
