Background
When Ligaya came to the US in 1996, she faced many hardships. People took advantage of her giving nature, yet she persisted, raising two sons while working as a personal trainer and obtaining a degree in kinesiology. For the past six years, though, she has been held in ICE detention, separated from her family while experiencing deplorable conditions within the facility.
​
Courageously, Ligaya spoke out against the malnutrition and the excessive use of HDQ Neutral, a harmful disinfectant, afflicting the patients in the GEO Group detention facility in Adelanto, CA (Diaz 2023). Ligaya lead a class action lawsuit against GEO Group - a for-profit prison company who benefits from these inhumane detentions and cuts costs at the expense of those people detained. GEO Group benefits from having folks in high places, with the current US Attorney General Pam Bondi who served as the leading lobbyist for the GEO Group (Franzblau 2025).
​​
​
​
​It takes someone truly heroic to face such adversaries and to expose such injustice. Ligaya could pay the price any day unless we, her community, fight her deportation and advocate for her liberation.
Eloy Detention Center
​
Ligaya is currently in the Eloy Detention Center still facing deportation. “Every single day people are scared that their name will be called. We need to have some kind of empathy for our experiences, and know we are human beings too,” said Ligaya. The detention center exceeded over its 109% capacity, holding ~42k people despite have only 38,521 beds. The Philippine consulate has never reached out to her or provided her with support. (Clarin, Feb 2025)
It is only through orgs like those that make up Defend Migrant Workers and her own advocacy that we know about her story. We will keep fighting until Ligaya and all our migrant families are liberated and ICE is abolished for good!
AZ Support Trip
