Elizabeth Hernandez-Carrillo is looking forward to spending more time with her children and getting back to work installing drywall now that she has been released from an immigration detention center in South Georgia.

Federal authorities released the Gwinnett County woman on an order of supervision Wednesday amid claims from her and her attorney that she is a U.S. citizen. Born in Mexico, Hernandez-Carrillo said she derived her citizenship from her late father, who was a naturalized American citizen and a U.S. Marine. An ICE spokesman said the agency is looking into her claim.

Hernandez-Carrillo, 46, was arrested last month at her home in Lilburn during a nationwide immigration enforcement operation that netted more than 680 people and drew widespread media attention. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement targeted her because she had returned to the U.S. after being deported to Mexico in 2004 following a felony marijuana trafficking conviction.

Details of the Revised Travel Ban

About the Author

Keep Reading

Blue heron are just one of the hundreds of kinds of animals and plants that call the Okefenokee Swamp home. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Featured

The renovation of Jekyll Island's Great Dunes golf course includes nine holes designed by Walter Travis in the 1920s for the members of the Jekyll Island Club. Several holes that were part of the original layout where located along the beach and were bulldozed in the 1950s.(Photo by Austin Kaseman)

Credit: Photo by Austin Kaseman