Her name is Esther López Sánchez, a native of Mexico who spent 15 months in jail and, since November 18, 2025, has been detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
According to Zeinab Al-Mathkour, a member of the Poder Popular Group, a movement focused on defending immigrant rights, she tells us that authorities arrested López Sánchez and her former partner, the father of their daughter, on weapons and drug charges, charges that were dropped against Esther in November 2025.
“She spent 15 months in the municipal jail or Rutherford County Jail. When she entered jail, she was four months pregnant. She was transported to a Smyrna municipal hospital, and she gave birth to her daughter in January 2024, as Zeinab Al-Mathkour recounts.”
Al-Mathkour explains that after giving birth, the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services allowed her to stay with her daughter for two days and a half, and although Esther had relatives who could take care of the little one, the department took custody of the child.
“They told her that, no, it wouldn’t work with any of those relatives, because one family member didn’t have legal documents. And that the other person, even though she was an American citizen, had someone in her home who didn’t have documents,” Al-Mathkour says.
Since then, López Sánchez says she has only seen the child through a photograph, and when the child was three months old.
Cecilia Guerrero, a member of the same movement, voiced her concern about the authorities’ lack of sensitivity.
“That’s why both of them are speaking out today to bring this case to light.”
“It’s a process of stealing a Mexican girl and making that Mexican girl grow up with an unknown family. Not knowing who she is, not her culture,” she tells us.
During the interview, they told us that for months they had requested intervention from the Mexican Consulate, and although support was initially sparse, in one of their latest conversations consular authorities said they would contact ICE to see how to assist López Sánchez.
Today they say that López Sánchez is willing to do whatever it takes to reclaim her daughter, but they note that time is against them.
“The social worker told me, you know, soon we’re going to file a petition to terminate Esther’s parental rights,” Al-Mathkour concludes.
