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Venkata Vasamsetty should not have had to report to the Charlotte ICE field office, her attorney and family say.
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The case the Department of Homeland Security opened against Vasamsetty was dismissed in May. Yet it was Aug. 11, and Vasamsetty was told to come back to Charlotte because ICE had yet to update its records.
So Vasamsetty’s daughter, Teja Vasamsetty, accompanied her to the ICE office. When it was time for Vasamsetty’s appointment, Teja tried to enter the office with her mother, she told The News & Observer in a Monday interview. An officer told her she didn’t need to come in. The appointment would be over in an instant.
Soon, Teja heard her mother scream. Vasamsetty was being detained.
Because her appointment was set for 11 a.m. that day, Vasamsetty, who has Type 2 diabetes, had taken her insulin but had not yet eaten her lunch, Teja said. (Taking insulin without eating soon after can drop blood sugar levels beyond a healthy range). So Teja pleaded with officers to let Vasamsetty go.
“I basically said, ‘Do not take her into detention,’” Teja said she told officers. “She will die. She hasn’t eaten. She took her insulin. She will die in detention if she doesn’t get her medications.”
Teja’s plea was to no avail. ICE officers detained her 59-year-old mother, who is from India and has been a Wake substitute teacher since 2013, according to the district’s personnel records. By the early morning of Aug. 12, she was in custody at the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia, where she remains as of Thursday.
That day, her immigration attorney, Helen Parsonage, alleged on social media that Vasamsetty had been unlawfully detained. State Sen. Jay Chaudhari, a Wake County Democrat, wrote in a Wednesday post that he is working with members of Congress to secure her release, sharing a link to a petition in support of Vasamsetty that had over 4,500 signatures as of Thursday.
Vasamsetty has lived in the U.S. since 1999. Her family is desperate for her release, because Vasamsetty has received too little food or insulin to manage her blood sugar levels at the Irwin County Detention Center, Teja said.
The N&O sent several questions to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security about Vasamsetty’s arrest and treatment in detention. In a Tuesday statement, a DHS spokesperson wrote that ICE denies any allegations that Vasamsetty is receiving inadequate treatment or food in custody. The agency said it provides “nutritionally adequate meals” to people in its custody.
“Vasamsetty will receive due process and remain in ICE custody pending the outcome of her removal proceedings,” the spokesperson wrote.
Vasamsetty went back to India to visit her sick father in July 2022, Parsonage wrote in her Aug. 12 post. But Vasamsetty was forced to delay her return to the U.S. after contracting COVID-19.
When she returned seven months later in February 2023, DHS officials accused her of abandoning her green card, Parsonage wrote. When The N&O asked DHS why it charged Vasamsetty with abandoning her status, the agency said she had violated her residency conditions but did not explain how.
Normally, the federal government will only accuse permanent residents of abandoning their green card if they have been outside the U.S. for more than a year, Parsonage told The N&O Saturday.
DHS ordered Vasamsetty to report to regular check-ins at ICE’s Charlotte office, Parsonage wrote. Vasamsetty did so and contested the allegation in court.
On March 9, 2026, a Charlotte immigration judge ordered DHS to provide evidence that Vasamsetty had abandoned her green card by May 8, according to documents Parsonage provided to The N&O. DHS failed to produce its evidence by the deadline, so an immigration judge dismissed the case on May 19.
Still, Vasamsetty had a check-in scheduled for July 11, Parsonage wrote. She attended but was told to come back in August as ICE had not updated its records. ICE check-ins are usually required only for people with pending immigration cases or in deportation proceedings, Parsonage told The N&O.
Vasamsetty went back to Charlotte on Aug. 11, where she was detained.
“It was, really, a trap that they set for her,” Parsonage said. “To me, that’s unconscionable.”
Teja asked ICE officers why — there was no case against her mother. Teja said an officer told her “repeatedly” they indeed did not have a case open against Vasamsetty, but they were going to open one.
Parsonage provided The N&O a Notice to Appear addressed to Vasamsetty and dated Aug. 11, accusing her of abandoning her green card in 2023. DHS signed the notice Aug. 11, the same day Vasamsetty was detained.
But the file stamp indicates the notice was uploaded Aug. 12 at 12:06 p.m., the day after Vasamsetty was detained — which, Parsonage said, is proof ICE had no active removal proceedings against Vasamsetty when officers detained her.
The Tuesday statement from a DHS spokesperson did not address The N&O’s question about whether ICE detained Vasamsetty without an active case against her.
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Vasamsetty was detained in Charlotte around 2 p.m. on Aug. 11, Teja said. Though she hadn’t had lunch, it wasn’t until 6 p.m. that officers offered her a beef sandwich. Vasamsetty told the officer she is Hindu, so she can’t eat beef.
“You know you’re going to jail, right?” an officer replied, Teja said. “Not a hotel.”
Vasamsetty arrived at the Irwin County Detention Center around 12:30 a.m., Teja said.
While in custody, Teja said her mother is eating 25% to 30% of the calories she’d normally eat, a rough estimate based on the phone call conversations the two have after every meal.
Vasamsetty’s Saturday dinner consisted of two pieces of toast and jelly, Teja said. A typical breakfast looks like cornflakes and a cup of milk. Some meals are served with beef, so when Vasamsetty says she can’t have beef, the beef portion of the meal is simply taken away. She gets no protein substitute, Teja said.
ICE said individuals in its custody can request religious diet accommodations through “established facility procedures,” a DHS spokesperson wrote in the Tuesday statement.
In her first two days of detention, Vasamsetty did not receive insulin, and her blood sugar was “up and down,” Teja said. By day four, Vasamsetty had lost five pounds, but the Irwin County Detention Center has barred Vasamsetty from checking her weight again, Teja said.
Vasamsetty is receiving insulin “on and off,” Teja said. She’s managing her insulin levels by saving apple jelly that comes with her bread and eating the jelly whenever she feels her blood sugar getting low. Knowing Vasamsetty’s older and more frail than most, others in custody with her share parts of their meals, Teja said.
“She kind of knows she has to keep fighting for us to keep fighting outside,” Teja said. “So she’s sort of in soldier mode.”
Soon after her detention, Parsonage filed an emergency petition for a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of Vasamsetty, which challenges the legality of a person’s detention. Parsonage provided The N&O with an Aug. 14 response to the petition submitted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia.
In its response, the U.S. Attorney’s Office denied that Vasamsetty was unlawfully detained, arguing the Notice to Appear was signed and issued Aug. 11, the same day Vasamsetty was detained. Still, it urged the court to order a bond hearing for Vasamsetty, citing recent court decisions.
Parsonage said in her experience, it is rare for the federal government to request a bond hearing on behalf of her clients.
“I’m not going to speculate on why they decided to do that, but it is gratifying,” Parsonage said. “To me, it says that there is some sympathy for her situation — at least in some folks on the government side.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia declined to comment on how often it requests bond hearings for immigrants in federal custody and why it did so in Vasamsetty’s case.
Once Vasamsetty arrived in Georgia, Teja and her sister, Yash Vasamsetty, followed. Teja, a physician with a 2-year-old, and Yash, an immigration attorney with an 8-month-old, are on leave from work and found other family members to watch their children, Teja said. Whether to put their lives on hold was never in question.
Vasamsetty supported Teja through medical school and Yash through law school, Teja said. If Teja and her husband, a cardiologist, are stuck at work, her mother is there to take care of her child.
Be it the two sisters or community members going through sickness or financial hardship, people can always count on Vasamsetty to show up — even when they didn’t ask for help.
Before she was detained, Vasamsetty substituted for a special needs teacher and built such a strong bond with one boy that the school requested she continue substituting ahead of the new school year, Teja said. But with Vasamsetty in detention, the school must now find a different substitute to start the year.
“Since we started the Change.org [petition], we’ve had her students reach out from 20 years ago and say, ‘I know this person,’” Teja said. “’She taught me. She was my teacher when I was in grade X, Y, Z, and she helped shape me.’”
Vasamsetty’s bond hearing is set for Tuesday morning, Parsonage said. Teja left Georgia temporarily to gather letters in support of bond for their mother, Yash said. Once she returns, the two sisters won’t leave Georgia until Vasamsetty is released.
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“She is the pillar of our family,” Teja said.
This story was originally published August 20, 2026 at 8:28 AM.