ICE released a 79-year-old dementia patient from detention in Eloy. They still haven't said why

ICE has released a 79-year-old Cuban woman from the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona, after she spent nine months there. Julia Benitez suffers from dementia and was known inside the detention center as "la abuela," or the grandmother.

Emily Bregel, border reporter for the Arizona Daily Star, has been writing about Benitez’s case. She joined The Show to talk about it.

Full conversation

EMILY BREGEL: Julia Benitez is a 79-year-old Cuban asylum seeker. And when I first heard about her in mid-January, she had been detained in Eloy Detention Center for about nine months. And that was after crossing the border near Lukeville. So outside the port of entry in May 2025. She turned herself into Border Patrol agents to request asylum and she had been detained ever since then.

MARK BRODIE: What were the circumstances of her crossing and of her turning herself in? Obviously you said she was seeking asylum. Were there any extenuating circumstances or was this sort of just political asylum based on the fact that she's from Cuba?

BREGEL: Yes. So she and her daughter had been persecuted after the murder, they say, of Benitez's husband back in 1991. She and her daughter spoke out against that and they were persecuted and harassed by the Cuban government for many years. Her daughter was able to come to the U.S. in 2022 with her sons, who Julia helped to raise in Cuba.

But her daughter so became a legal permanent resident, but the husband who sponsored her was not able to sponsor her mother as well. So whether or not it was advisable, which clearly the family really regrets the decision to send Julia on her own to the border, they felt at the time it was their best option. And hadn't considered the possibility, didn't really believe the U.S. government would actually imprison this woman for all this time.

BRODIE: And as you report, there are some pretty significant health concerns that they had and that she dealt with in detention in Eloy, right?

BREGEL: That's right. Julia had probably early-stage dementia, but just really small memory lapses initially before she went into detention. But over those nine months in this institutional setting with unfamiliar people, not too much social engagement, her dementia deteriorated significantly. To the point where when her daughter, daughter would have video calls with her from the detention center, Julia wouldn't recognize her daughter, wouldn't know where she was, thinking she was still in Cuba. She was extremely confused.

And she also began having to rely on a wheelchair for the first time while at Eloy, not to mention her diabetes became out of control. Her daughter said her hypertension worsened. Just all the things that this type of setting you might expect would have a negative impact on, especially an elderly person.

BRODIE: Yeah. Is the thinking that her detention sort of accelerated the dementia?

BREGEL: Exactly, yes. And talking to experts and just people with grandparents who have dementia, you kind of can recognize how in that sort of setting, without that consistent social engagement, without familiar people around you, dementia definitely worsens in that kind of setting.

BRODIE: I want to ask you about Benitez's nickname, la abuela, the grandmother. It sounds, at least from that nickname, that she was kind of a respected and maybe beloved figure among her fellow detainees. Is that accurate?

BREGEL: That's right. It sounds like a lot of the women there in Julia's cell block, I guess you'd say, a lot of them sort of took her under their wing. And some of them who I talked to as well, saw them as their grandmother or a grandmother figure, and that's what la abuela means in Spanish.

And in speaking with Julia's daughter, she just expressed so much gratitude to these women who are in detention themselves, have their own immigration story and pain they're dealing with. But gave this affection and care to her mother while she couldn't. So, yes, these women helped Julia get dressed in the morning, use the bathroom, move around the facility in her wheelchair. And of course, helped her use the technology so that she could communicate with her daughter, who's in Miami.

So, that actually is a kind of one beautiful part of this story. Diana, the daughter ... when I spoke to her after Julia was released, Diana was just overwhelmed with gratitude for these women who she called angels from heaven for caring for her mother during this time.

BRODIE: What are the circumstances that led to Julia being released from detention?

BREGEL: So, our story was published in the Arizona Daily Star on Feb. 15, and we also syndicated it nationally throughout the U.S. to our sister newspapers. So we were able to give this issue some national attention. And a few days later, Rep. Adelita Grijalva took up Julia's cause. ... In Grijalva's first inspection, her first visit to an ICE detention center, she went to Eloy, and she was able to meet with Julia.

So after meeting with her in this, what she described as a heartbreaking visit, Grijalva said she was going to advocate for Julia's release and sort of began posting about her case. So we can't say exactly what happened. ICE has not given us any response. They did not respond to my questions for the first story about why they couldn't or wouldn't release Julia on humanitarian parole.

ICE always has the discretion to do this if someone's not a threat to the public or a flight risk, which it appears Julia would not be, especially having family more than willing to care for her. So ... didn't respond there. And they did not respond to my later question about why they changed their mind and ended up releasing her ultimately on humanitarian parole.

I should point out that this doesn't mean — it doesn't guarantee that Julia can stay in the U.S. She still has an asylum claim pending. This is an appeal to her initial asylum claim being denied, despite what, what might seem to be a pretty strong case ... it seems like she has evidence of the persecution she experienced in, in Cuba. But it is also very high threshold for anyone to be approved for asylum. So they're still waiting on the results of that appeal. And it' a possibility she could be deported, but at least during this time she's with her family.

BRODIE: Is there any kind of timeline in terms of when the family might expect a decision on that appeal?

BREGEL: So the appeal was just filed last month in February. I don't have the exact date. So those types of things. It does seem like there can be a while, you hear about asylum cases taking years. But then lately with an appeal, I feel like that's going to be a few months probably, but it's really hard to predict.

BRODIE: OK. Has the family talked about what they might do if her appeal is denied and she is sent back to Cuba?

BREGEL: When I talked to Diana, Julia's daughter, soon after Julia was released, Diana said that even thinking about that possibility is really difficult. And she was trying very much to just focus on the joy of being with her mother again. But at the same time, she did allude to what would happen. Who would she live with? Where would she go? "My mother has already left everything behind to come here, doesn't have even a house to go back to."

So that's clearly going to be something they'd have to grapple with. But at this time, I think they're just trying to focus on the present.

BRODIE: Sure. And do we have a sense of how she is doing?

BREGEL: So, so far from what I've heard, Diana says she seems to be improving. ... When I last spoke to her, she said her goal was to just spend as much time as she could with her mom, talk to her as much as she could. And try to understand, you know, what limitations she may have developed cognitively and what she can get back.

But she seems very optimistic. She sent me some beautiful photos of la abuela cuddled up with her own grandson. ... I think it's going to be a little time before they can really evaluate how she's doing. But at least you can tell she's super happy.