NRI PULSE STAFF REPORT
Cary/Atlanta, August 13, 2026 — A longtime green-card holder, Wake County teacher and grandmother has been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, nearly three months after an immigration judge dismissed removal proceedings against her, according to her attorney.
Venkata Vasamsetty, a Cary resident who has held lawful permanent resident status since 2013, was taken into custody Aug. 11 after reporting to an ICE office in Charlotte for a scheduled check-in, attorney Helen Parsonage said.
The following day, Parsonage’s office filed an emergency petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal court seeking Vasamsetty’s release.
Federal court records confirm that Vasamsetty v. Warden of Irwin County Detention Center et al., case number 7:26-cv-00228, was filed Aug. 12 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. The filing indicates that Vasamsetty was being held at the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia.
According to Parsonage, Vasamsetty is a teacher with the Wake County Public School System who works with special-needs children. She is also a homeowner and small-business owner. Her children and grandchildren are U.S. citizens, and the attorney said Vasamsetty has no criminal record.
The immigration dispute dates to July 2022, when Vasamsetty traveled to India to visit her father, who was suffering from serious health problems. While there, she contracted COVID-19, delaying her return to the United States. By the time she returned, she had been outside the country for a little more than seven months, according to her attorney.
Upon her return, the Department of Homeland Security alleged that the extended absence showed she had abandoned her U.S. permanent residency and placed her in removal proceedings. She was allowed to return home while the case proceeded but was required to report regularly to ICE’s Charlotte office.
Vasamsetty contested the government’s allegation that she had abandoned her green card. According to Parsonage, her previous immigration attorney submitted extensive documentation showing that she had maintained her home, livelihood and family ties in the United States.
Parsonage said DHS did not submit evidence by a deadline imposed by the immigration judge.
On May 19, 2026, the immigration judge dismissed the removal case, according to the attorney. Vasamsetty therefore remained a lawful permanent resident and was no longer in removal proceedings, Parsonage said.
Despite the dismissal, Vasamsetty still had an ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations check-in scheduled for July 11.
She appeared at the Charlotte office with a copy of the judge’s dismissal order, according to Parsonage. Rather than ending the reporting requirement, ICE officials allegedly told her that their records had not yet been updated and instructed her to return the following month.
On Aug. 11, Vasamsetty returned to the ICE office accompanied by her daughter.
“She did not come out,” Parsonage wrote in an account of the case.
The attorney has characterized Vasamsetty’s detention as unlawful and is challenging it in federal court. The claim that the detention is unlawful has not yet been established by a federal court.
The circumstances surrounding the detention — particularly why ICE took Vasamsetty into custody after the immigration case had been dismissed — remain unclear. No public explanation from ICE addressing the specific circumstances of Vasamsetty’s detention was located as of Thursday.
The emergency habeas petition now places the dispute before a federal judge in Georgia, where Vasamsetty’s attorneys are seeking her release from immigration custody.
Cover photo: Venkata Vasamsetty. Photo courtesy of Helen Parsonage/Facebook.
