Gaby Pacheco
“The past 15 days have been the hardest of my life. I was scared and felt alone,” Goncalves said in a statement. “I was placed in a system that treated me like I didn’t matter. In detention, we were given soggy, wet food —even the bread would come wet. We were kept on confusing schedules. And the moment they realized I spoke English, I saw a change. Suddenly, I was treated better than others who didn’t speak English. That broke my heart. Because no one deserves to be treated like that. Not in a country that I’ve called home since I was 7 years old and is all I’ve ever known,” Goncalves added.
“I want to say thank you — deeply — to my best friends and my family who never stopped fighting for me. Especially to my community, the organizations like TheDream.US and Casa de Paz that stood up for me, the Senators’ offices who made calls and my church community who prayed for me. To my attorney, Jon Hyman, thank you for giving me hope when I had none left.”
In a statement, TheDream.US President & CEO Gaby Pacheco said, “I was relieved and grateful to watch Caroline Dias Goncalves, one of our beloved TheDream.US Scholars, walk out of an ICE private detention center Friday evening — finally free after 15 harrowing days. She never should have been there. Caroline was stopped by local police on June 5th for a minor traffic violation. What followed was an unjust and likely illegal handoff to immigration enforcement—ripping her from her life, her studies, and her community. This is not just a policy failure. It is a moral one.”
Diverse previously reported that the detention of Dreamers like Goncalves has intensified the spotlight on immigration issues in higher education. The Change.org petition “Free Scholar Caroline Dias Goncalves from ICE Detention” received over 7,000 signatures.
TheDream.US is a college and career success program for undocumented immigrant students, having provided more than 12,000 college scholarships to Dreamers attending over 80 partner colleges in 21 states and Washington, D.C.
