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A 20-year-old Honduran woman who has lived in the Charlotte area for more than a decade will soon be removed from the U.S. after choosing voluntary removal following months in custody.
Allison Bustillo-Chinchilla has been in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody for six months. Bustillo-Chinchilla appeared in a final hearing via Webex on Tuesday, where she informed the court that she wished to withdraw her asylum petition and leave the country voluntarily.
Bustillo-Chinchilla moved to North Carolina from Honduras when she was 8 years old. She graduated from Crest High School in Shelby and earned a scholarship to attend Gardner-Webb University, with hopes of becoming a nurse.
Those dreams were cut short in February, when ICE agents detained Bustillo-Chinchilla, her mother and her brother, all of whom are undocumented, at their east Charlotte home.
Bustillo-Chinchilla's mother and her brother were later released so they could care for her two younger siblings, but she remained in custody and was transferred to Stewart Detention Center in Georgia.
Keily Chinchilla, Bustillo-Chinchilla's mother, told WFAE the jail's conditions prompted her daughter to ask for voluntary removal.
"I feel disappointed," Keily Chinchilla said. "I feel tired, and it's very difficult because I won't be able to see her leave the country."
Bustillo-Chinchilla will stay in ICE custody until she is released for voluntary removal to Honduras.
