Freedom Campaigns

Maria Suarez is FREE!

More about Maria: Testimony

Free Battered Women is thrilled to celebrate the release of Maria Suarez from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention on Tuesday, May 25th, 2004!

After 22 years of incarceration in state prison and months of detention awaiting her imminent deportation, Maria Suarez is finally free!

Free Battered Women extends our joyful congratulations and gratitude to Maria, her niece Patricia Valencia (who spearheaded efforts to win Maria's release), the rest of Maria's family, her legal team (including attorney Jessica Dominguez and Free Battered Women Steering Committee member Gloria Killian), U.S. Congresswoman Hilda Solis, and numerous other friends and supporters, including Rhonda Findling and Sebastopol mayor Linda Kelley, all of whom tirelessly struggled for justice.

Read more about Maria's journey to freedom:

Parolee's first taste of freedom -- Onetime teen sex slave averts deportation
(San Francisco Chronicle, May 25, 2004)

Woman Freed After 22 Years in Prison
(L.A. Times, May 25, 2004)

'I Will Be Free Someday': Woman convicted in murder of warlock who 'owned' her is out of prison; now she's being held by the INS
(San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 25, 2004).