Faith leaders, advocates, and others held a candlelight vigil in Pompano Beach Tuesday night to draw attention to a Pompano Beach mother facing deportation to a country she left as a baby — even though vigil organizers contend she's a lawful permanent U.S. resident.
Sirena Prosper, 47, a local business owner and mother of seven, was recently apprehended and detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and remains in ICE custody, said vigil organizers.
"Sirena Prosper's story is about more than immigration status," organizers said in a statement calling for her release. "It is about a mother and her children, a business owner and her community, and a family facing the possibility of being separated from one another."
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Prosper is listed as a detainee at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center, according to the ICE Online Detainee Locator System. It is a GEO Group-run ICE facility for women.
ICE: She's a criminal illegal alien from Haiti'
A spokesman for ICE told WLRN that Prosper is "a criminal illegal alien from Haiti [who] was arrested by ICE officers during a targeting enforcement action in Pompano Beach."
"Prosper has an extensive criminal record including convictions for burglary of a residence, resisting an officer, larceny and burglary," the ICE spokesman said in an e-mailed statement to WLRN. Details of the conviction were not disclosed.
The ICE spokesman said Prosper legally entered the country, but was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge two decades ago, and will be removed from the U.S.
"ICE will continue to execute the Trump administration’s enforcement priorities by identifying, arresting and removing illegal aliens who violate U.S. law," the spokesman said.
"Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S.," the spokesman added. "We will find you, we will arrest you, and we will deport you.
Organized with support from Faith in Florida and Faith in Action, the "Stand Up for Sirena" vigil called for Prosper’s rlease from ICE custody so she can return home to her children. Six of her children are U.S. citizens, three of whom are minors.
"Tonight's vigil is very important because we wanna [bring] awareness to this matter — not just for my Aunt Serena, but for the whole community itself," said Sirena Prosper's niece, Marie.
"This is happening to a lot of people. They're being taken away from their family."
Prosper brought to U.S. as a baby
Prosper has lived in the United States since she was six months old and later became a lawful permanent resident, according to vigil organizers, who said she has called the U.S. home for nearly her entire life.
The ICE spokesman said Prosper was ordered by an immigration judge to be deported on Jan. 9, 2002.
It's unclear which country Prosper may be returned to because immigration records list her birthplace as Haiti rather than the Bahamas, say vigil organizers.
Prosper is among tens of thousands of immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally to be arrested by ICE as part of the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration.
The Department of Homeland Security reported that ICE arrested nearly 51,000 immigrants in August, surpassing a record number in July for a single month.
In August, ICE arrested 50,925 illegal aliens across the country, according to DHS, which said the previous record in July was 50,208 people.
More than 3 million undocumented immigrants have left the United States since Trump took office in January 2025, DHS officials said.
