Beata Siemionkowicz spent her first night in Kentucky’s Campbell County Detention Center in a cell with black mold covering the air vents and dead bedbugs lingering in the room’s corners. There was blood smeared above the doorway.
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Siemionkowicz shared that pod with 60 other women, many of whom, like herself, were immigrants in the United States detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
The Poland native, a green card holder of more than two decades, was arrested days earlier in Des Plaines, a Chicago suburb. Her first night in Campbell County was Aug. 4, 2025. She has remained incarcerated in northern Kentucky since, for the last 51 weeks.
Now, nearly one year later, Siemionkowicz’s family continues to fight for her freedom. Her former cellmate, whom she spent that first night with in Kentucky, may be the legal case study that will get her out of ICE custody, her friends and family hope.
“Beata did all the paperwork right; she even applied for naturalization,” said Donna Hughes-Brown, an Irish citizen who was incarcerated with Siemionkowicz and described the conditions they endured. Hughes-Brown has since been released; the deportation charges in her case were unfounded.
“She had done everything right,” Hughes-Brown said about Siemionkowicz. “And it didn’t matter.”
Siemionkowicz could not be reached for comment in detention. But her family says and records show that she entered the United States legally in 1995, moving to Illinois from her hometown of Bialystok, Poland. She has been a permanent resident with a green card since 2003.
A divorced, single mom of two, Siemionkowicz built her life in Round Lake as a commercial cleaner and later, a hospice caregiver. That life was abruptly halted one August afternoon in 2025 when two masked ICE agents in civilian clothes arrested Siemionkowicz in her daughter’s backyard where she was gardening.
Claudia, 25, and Gabi, 21, Siemionkowicz’s daughters, heard the news of her arrest via a phone call from Siemionkowicz’s second husband, John.
“He was hysterical, crying,” Claudia said. “He’s like, ‘I couldn’t do anything. They just took her, grabbed her, and shoved her in the car.’”
Siemionkowicz was arrested Aug. 2, 2025. She was one of just 33 Poles to be booked into a Chicago-area ICE detention center, according to a Tribune analysis of ICE data provided by the research group Deportation Data Project. However, more than half — 19 — were Polish immigrants arrested during the main, 64-day surge of Operation Midway Blitz.
Agents arrested Siemionkowicz for her criminal record of misdemeanor retail theft from Jewel in September 2005 and Kohl’s in October 2011. The agency also claims she forged documents to obtain immigration benefits in 2001, before her green card status.
Gabi and Claudia knew about their mom’s criminal history, which Siemionkowicz resolved years ago through fines and a period of supervised release, according to Lake County court records. The sisters say their mom stole kids’ clothes for them during an especially hard time after her divorce.
In a statement to the Tribune, a DHS spokesperson said: “Siemionkowicz has made a mockery of our immigration system and our laws.”
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“Possessing a green card is a privilege, not a right,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement. Under our nation’s laws, our government has the authority to revoke a green card if our laws are broken and abused.”
While at Broadview, Siemionkowicz met Hughes-Brown, an Irish immigrant and green card holder, who was detained at O’Hare International Airport after landing on a plane from Dublin. The women were transferred to Kentucky together.
“We were put in general population with the regular inmates, the ones that had actually committed crimes,” Hughes-Brown said. “We were right there with folks who had attempted murder charges on them for slashing their partner’s necks and stuff like that. Then there’s Beata and myself.”
Hughes-Brown’s situation is largely similar to that of Siemionkowicz: Both women were arrested by ICE for a misdemeanor crime committed more than a decade ago and hold valid legal status. The difference is that Hughes-Brown is no longer in ICE custody. She was released after a federal judge ordered her no longer deportable.
She was detained at the Campbell County Detention Center for 143 days.
“My case is done, I’m out,” Hughes-Brown said. “My mission is not done — speaking out for Beata and her case, speaking out for Jamie and the hundreds of other detainees that shouldn’t be detained because there’s no process to get here.”
Despite Siemionkowicz’s status as a green card holder, an immigration judge ordered her deportation on Dec. 9, 2025, according to court records. Siemionkowicz’s family has since filed an appeal, fighting to keep their mother on U.S. soil. She will remain in ICE custody pending her removal, a DHS spokesperson confirmed.
Hughes-Brown’s case could be a blueprint to get Siemionkowicz out of ICE custody without being deported to Poland, where she no longer knows anyone, Hughes-Brown believes. Hughes-Brown’s case made international news when she was released after her husband took to the floor of Congress, advocating for her freedom.
“Mine was all new. There were no cases like mine,” Hughes-Brown said. “With Beata’s, they have my case to assimilate it with. There’s already a record of my case, and now there are a couple others that are similar where they have allowed folks to be released.”
As in Hughes-Brown’s case, Gabi and Claudia are working with Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, a longtime champion of immigrants’ rights, to get their mom out of ICE detention.
“Senator Durbin takes seriously his commitment to assist his constituents. Senator Durbin’s office has been in contact with the family and will continue to provide whatever assistance is possible,” a spokesperson from Durbin’s office said in a statement to the Tribune.
Siemionkowicz hired the same attorney who helped free Hughes-Brown, her daughters say. The lawyer could not be reached for comment.
In the meantime, with Siemionkowicz still behind bars, Gabi and Claudia remain hopeful, holding their mother’s former life together in Illinois so she may have a place to come home to. The sisters stepped up to pay her bills and care for Siemionkowicz’s dog, Vaughn, while she is behind bars. Gabi temporarily dropped out of nursing school at Oakton College to pay for Siemionkowicz’s mortgage, utilities and legal fees.
The sisters said all the sacrifice will be worth it to see their mom again.
“We just know deep down in our hearts that our mom does not deserve to be removed from this country,” Claudia said. “She has two misdemeanors, yes, but those were resolved. We’re really still in ignorance about the whole thing; we can’t believe that this is happening.”
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Chicago Tribune reporter Joseph Mahr contributed.
