A woman detained by ICE says her baby daughter remains in state custody a month after prosecutors dismissed the charges that led to her own arrest.
Esther Lopez-Sanchez is being held at a South Louisiana processing center while her child remains in the custody of Tennessee’s Department of Children’s Services (DCS), according to a report Wednesday by Fox 17 Nashville.
The station reported that the baby girl was born in the U.S. and described her as a citizen. It did not report the baby’s age.
Migrant advocate Zeinab Al-Mathkour told Fox 17 she speaks with Lopez-Sanchez daily from detention and the separation has left her devastated. “This has destroyed her,” Al-Mathkour said.
Al-Mathkour said Lopez-Sanchez was arrested last year while pregnant and taken to the Rutherford County jail, where she went into labor and gave birth at a nearby hospital.
After about two-and-a-half days with her baby, Al-Mathkour said, Lopez-Sanchez was transferred into immigration custody without the child.
Fox 17 said court records show Lopez-Sanchez was arrested on Aug. 15, 2024, alongside her partner, Roberto Nunez-Gomez, on drug and firearm charges.
Her charges were dropped on Nov. 12, 2025, the station said, while Nunez-Gomez was convicted.
Al-Mathkour told the station Nunez-Gomez is the baby’s father and said the pair are no longer together. Despite this, DCS and the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, have refused to return the child to Lopez-Sanchez a month after she was told she would face no further action.
Al-Mathkour told FOX 17 News Lopez-Sanchez asked to give the baby to family members. “(DCS) told her those won’t work because one of them is undocumented. The other one lives with someone who is undocumented,” she said.
Asked if Lopez-Sanchez would be prepared to go back to Mexico to be reunited with her child, Al-Mathkour said: “Her whole focus is regaining custody of her daughter, whether that means fighting deportation here, or going back to Mexico.”
Steve Gill, a conservative political analyst, argued the central question is the child’s welfare, including whether the baby should remain in foster care in the U.S. or be sent to live with family outside the country.
Immigration attorney Andrew Rankin told Fox 17 that custody decisions are typically guided by a child’s best interests, but said parents must have a meaningful chance to be heard. “There is an argument that as a matter of due process, parents have the right to parent their child,” Rankin said.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Homeland Security and Tennessee DCS for comment.
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