New video footage shows ICE agents arresting Chantal Morales Rojas, 27, of Ecuador, at Denver International Airport earlier this week. Currently employed as an au pair in Oakland, Rojas was in Denver to visit with her former host family.
Bay Area resident Alycia Dantzker told ABC 7 that she happened to be on the same flight as Rojas because both were in town for an ultimate frisbee tournament hosted by the family in question. Dantzker began filming after a man approached Rojas and started asking questions about her immigration status.
He was soon joined by "additional people in civilian clothes" who gathered around Rojas on the jetway before she was ultimately taken into custody.
Dantzker says she's known Rojas for three years and described her to ABC 7 as someone with "a lot of wisdom and just really, really smart and incredibly kind and caring." Before her tenure in Oakland, according to Dantzker, Rojas also worked as an au pair for a family in Santa Cruz County. They later moved to Denver, prompting the recent visit.
In a statement provided to American Community Media, ICE alleges that Rojas overstayed her visa, claiming it expired in January 2025.
But Laura Lichter, one of Rojas' attorneys, disputes this account.
Speaking with American Community Media, Lichter asserts that Rojas followed all the rules of her visa program:
"Chantal came to the United States lawfully in early 2023 on a J-1 exchange visitor visa as an au pair. She followed the rules of her program and, before it ended, timely filed an application with U.S. immigration authorities that allowed her to remain in the country while her case has been pending."
Rojas is currently being held at an ICE detention facility in Colorado and told Dantzker that the experience has been "a nightmare" to endure, per ABC 7. Attorneys for Rojas have filed a habeas petition in hopes of seeking her release.
Per American Community Media, Rojas' arrest comes "amid a dramatic uptick in immigrant detentions, with ICE reporting some 43,000 arrests in June of this year."
Earlier this week, SFist reported on video footage showing ICE forcibly detaining a 38-year-old Ukrainian woman at SFO.
Related: Woman From Ukraine Forcibly Detained at SFO In Viral Video; Feds Say She Overstayed Her Visa
Image: Denver International Airport (Dillon Wanner/Unsplash)
