Cary Teacher and Green Card Holder “Unlawfully” Detained by ICE, Lawyer Says

Venkata Vasamsetty, 59, a Cary, North Carolina, mother and grandmother who has been a lawful permanent resident since 2013, was detained on August 11 after attending an ICE check-in appointment in Charlotte and has been held at the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia, WUNC reported. Her attorney, Helen Parsonage, says Vasamsetty was “unlawfully detained” at an appointment she was not legally required to attend, noting that deportation proceedings against her — over a Department of Homeland Security claim that she abandoned her green card after being stranded in India during the pandemic — were dismissed in May 2026 when DHS missed an evidence deadline. Vasamsetty, a Wake County Public School System substitute teacher who works with special needs students, has type 2 diabetes and has experienced low blood sugar and weight loss in custody; her requests for Hindu dietary accommodation went largely unmet. An immigration judge was scheduled to hear her bond case in late August.