Teen asylum seeker whose case was championed by Ms. Rachel ordered released from ICE custody
Olivia Mabiala Andre, the teen asylum seeker whose case was championed by children's educator and YouTube star Ms. Rachel, must be released from immigration detention no later than Friday, a federal judge has ruled.
According to court documents, a judge found that Andre, 19, was being unlawfully detained in part, because the government had not determined that she posed a danger to the community or was a flight risk t the time she was first detained.
Attorney Elora Mukherjee said she spoke with Andre after the judge's ruling.
"She is overjoyed and overwhelmed with emotions," Mukherjee said.
Andre and her family, who are originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, were detained by immigration officials in November 2025 after they unsuccessfully tried to seek asylum in Canada after a U.S. judge denied their U.S. asylum claim.
The family was separated during the detention and Andre was sent to several detention facilities before being sent to South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. It wasn't until a couple weeks later that she found out the rest of her family was also being detained there, she said.
Her attorneys are appealing the denial of asylum and a federal court has barred the Trump administration from deporting the family while a judge weighs the request. In March, Immigration and Customs Enforcement released Andre's mother and two younger siblings but she remained detained.
Andre's 8-year-old bother drowned in a river in Colombia during the family's journey to the United States.
Andre graduated from high school a year and a half early, according to court documents, and was in college studying to become a nurse at the time she was detained.
