Massachusetts Mother Detained by ICE Over 2003 Marijuana Charge

Jemmy Jimenez Rosa, a Massachusetts mother of three, was detained for 10 days by ICE over a sealed 2003 marijuana charge. Denied proper medical care and moved across detention centers, she was released after her conviction was vacated. Lawmakers condemned the detention, while her family seeks medical and legal support.

Jemmy Jimenez Rosa, a 42-year-old mother of three and legal permanent US resident, was detained for ten days by federal immigration authorities over a decades-old marijuana conviction. She was taken into custody on August 11 at the US-Mexico border, in front of her children, after returning from a family vacation.

Her husband, Marcel Rosa, described the moment as traumatic for their young daughters, who clung to their mother while officers escorted her away. During her detention, Rosa was transferred between several facilities in Massachusetts and Maine, including a men’s unit, and reportedly denied adequate medical care for her chronic diabetes and asthma. She was hospitalized twice before her release.

The charge in question dated back to 2003, when Rosa, then 20, was arrested with a small amount of marijuana, pleaded guilty, and completed probation. The record had been sealed for over a decade. Her attorney, Todd Pomerleau, argued that ICE should not have had access to those sealed records, raising questions about how the information was obtained.

Pomerleau successfully petitioned a judge to vacate the conviction, after which ICE dropped the case. He criticized the detention as unlawful, stating that Rosa had been treated like a criminal for an offense that is no longer prosecutable under Massachusetts law.

Upon her release, Rosa was left without transportation or a phone, eventually finding help at a restaurant where she borrowed a stranger’s phone to call her family. Her ordeal has drawn attention from lawmakers, with Senator Paul Feeney calling the detention “brutal and capricious.”

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Rosa’s family has since launched a GoFundMe campaign to help cover medical and legal expenses, raising over $14,000. Her husband said she remains shaken, and the family is arranging psychiatric support to help her recover from the traumatic experience.