PROVIDENCE – A Providence teenager detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement was transferred “for reasons of bed space management” when she was moved from Maine to a Colorado detention center days before she was scheduled to have an immigration court hearing on her request for US asylum status, a spokesperson for the federal agency said.
Vivian Gisselle Soriano-Neto, 18, who had been held by ICE in New England since March, was moved to the Denver Contract Detention Facility in Aurora, Colo., on June 1, just ahead of her June 4 hearing in Massachusetts her immigration attorney, Cindy Salazar Tohme, said.
At the time, ICE did not specify why it had made the abrupt transfer, a move Salazar Tohme called unusual, given the close timing of the hearing. The change means Sorriano-Neto’s case is transferred to another court.
“The major disadvantage here is that she had an individual hearing date that was on the calendar,” Salazar Tohme said Tuesday. “She already had her opportunity and her time slot to fight her case. Now she’s been moved and it’s starting over.”
In response to emailed questions from the Globe, an ICE spokesperson said on Tuesday said Soriano-Neto was moved “for reasons of bed space management.”
“There are a finite number of beds dedicated to ICE detainees at a given facility,” the spokesperson said.
A Honduran national, Soriano-Neto was arrested in February by Providence police on charges of indecent solicitation of a child and trafficking of a minor, Rhode Island court records show.
She was charged after she was blamed, without proof, by at least one of her friends, who were allegedly having sex with men for money, her attorneys have previously said.
Soriano-Neto was a student at Mount Pleasant High School in Providence at the time of her arrest, according to Salazar Tohme. She is no longer enrolled, however, a district spokesperson confirmed.
Now, Soriano-Neto may never get her day in Providence County District Court for her criminal case before she is possibly deported, her criminal defense attorney, John MacDonald, said last month.
ICE first publicized the case through a press release last month, claiming Soriano-Neto “trafficked a child for nefarious reasons.”
Then, days after MacDonald spoke to the Globe about her case and how he considered it “an extremely weak case” based on the evidence he had seen, Soriano-Neto was transferred by ICE from Maine to Colorado.
MacDonald said earlier this month the timing of the Soriano-Neto’s transfer out of state “absolutely smacks of retaliation.”
“The suggestion that ICE is somehow retaliating for media coverage is ridiculous,” the ICE spokesperson said. “ICE does not allow coverage from the Boston Globe or any media outlet to dictate our operations.”
MacDonald responded on Wednesday, saying the timing “is either incredibly coincidental or ICE isn’t paying attention to the immigration docket.”
“It’s either cruelty or incompetence on their part,” he said.
The ICE spokesperson said it is “not at all unusual to move detainees.”
“The Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) exists nationwide with immigration judges deciding cases on the basis of the [Immigration and Nationality Act], which applies across the entire country,” the spokesperson said. “EOIR will schedule a hearing for Ms. Soriano-Neto. As of right now they have not scheduled her next hearing.”
The spokesperson also disputed that Soriano-Neto, who unlawfully entered the country as a child, was on a pathway to legal status at the time of her arrest.
“[US Citizenship and Immigration Services], who granted the deferred action in her case, canceled her deferred action status after her arrest by the Providence Police Department,” the spokesperson said. “USCIS is independent from ICE and they chose to cancel it.”
Salazar Tohme, on Tuesday, maintained Soriano-Neto had an approved petition giving her a right to get a green card as a “special immigrant juvenile.”
Immigrants are eligible for SIJ status they have “have been abused, abandoned, or neglected by a parent,” according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
“Once her priority date comes current, what happens is that she is eligible to file the I-485 application to register as a permanent resident,” Salazar Tohme said. “So that’s certainly a pathway to legalization.”
According to MacDonald, Soriano-Neto does not yet need to appear in Rhode Island state court for the criminal case against her, but he said it is typically “very difficult to get any out-of-state client back in Rhode Island in ICE custody.”
A warrant can be issued against her if she fails to eventually appear and therefore, she will not be allowed “to ever legally come back into the United States,” MacDonald has said.
The ICE spokesperson did not answer questions about why Soriano-Neto was detained before she was convicted.
Asked how ICE determines which people it will pursue and whether individuals are detained based on the facts of the case or the charges alone, the spokesperson said, “ICE will continue to arrest individuals who are unlawfully present in the United States.”
Christopher Gavin can be reached at christopher.gavin@globe.com.