Feds Quietly Deport Flatbush Grandmother, Activists Say

FLATBUSH, BROOKLYN — A Brooklyn grandmother who has lived in New York for more than 30 years was detained and quietly deported to Mexico, according to officials and the activists who tried to free her.

Gloria Hernandez, a Flatbush resident who has lived with her family in Brooklyn for 34 years, was sent out of the United States Tuesday night after she spent months in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center, activists said.

"She was taken from her family & community without warning," New Sanctuary NYC tweeted Wednesday. "It’s vile."

The Flatbush woman is the wife of a 58-year-old husband with "deteriorating health problems," a mother of six and a grandmother of eight children whom she cares for so her family can work, according to the grassroots organization Brooklyn Defense Committee.

Hernandez, originally from Mexico, was arrested on July 16 after immigration officials discovered she'd returned to the United States after an initial deportation in 2001, an ICE spokeswoman said.

Activists and Hernandez' family rallied outside the ICE building on Varick Street Wednesday to protest treatment the Flatbush grandmother faced in the hands of federal officials.

"She was huddled in a corner shivering," said Reverend Micah Bucey, describing one of his visits with the terrified grandmother. "We were hugging her goodbye and an ICE officer came around the corner and said, 'You gotta stop this, we gotta move the body.'"

"Take that in," Bucey said. "In a moment, they killed her. Maybe metaphorically, but in a moment, that's enough."

Photo courtesy of John Moore / Getty Images / Getty Images Staff