Pauline Followed Every Rule. Now She Needs You.

7 days ago
7 min read

If you have watched ICE pull a mother out of her home and felt that mix of fury and helplessness, the sense that something is deeply wrong and you are not sure what one person can do about it, this is for you. Because right now there is something you can do, and it takes about five minutes.

Her name is Pauline Nadege Binam. She is 36 years old. She came to this country from Cameroon when she was two, which means she has spent more than 34 years here, the whole of her life that she can remember. She is a mother. And tonight she is sitting inside Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, while ICE moves to deport her to a country she has not seen since she was a toddler, away from a U.S. citizen daughter who needs her.

Public pressure has saved Pauline from deportation once before. You can help save her again.

We feel it too, and we know what works

At NGA CAN, that same fury runs through everything we do, and we have learned what to do with it. We run rapid response, organize mutual aid, distribute Know Your Rights materials, and show up at county and city meetings across our region to push for positive change.

Here is what we have learned. Cases like Pauline's are not lost causes. They are decided by how loud we get and how fast. Thanks to a guide put together by GLAHR, the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, you don't have to map this out on your own. We'll point you to exactly where your voice does the most good.

What is at stake if we stay quiet

If no one speaks up, the U.S. government deports Pauline to Cameroon, a place she left as a two year old, knowing she would face persecution there, including because of her sexual orientation. A government that sends anyone toward that kind of danger has abandoned its own laws and conscience. The detention also harms a U.S. citizen child: her 17 year old daughter, Samiyah. Her family says the separation has pushed Samiyah into a mental health crisis. That's the cost of tearing a mother away from her child, and about 145,000 US children whose parents have been detained by ICE are in the same boat. And the for-profit detention machine that locked Pauline up learns once again that it can do this quietly, to anyone, with no one watching.

That is the future we refuse to accept. The good news is that its not written in stone yet.

Why Pauline, and why now

First, the thing that should not need saying. No one has to earn their way out of a cage. Pauline matters because she is a human being, and that is the whole of it. What follows is not a list of reasons she has proven herself worthy of freedom. It is a record of what our government is doing to a woman who never belonged in detention in the first place. Anyone who reads her story and reaches for "good riddance" has revealed something about themselves, not about her.

Pauline was two years old when her family brought her to the United States. No two year old chooses to migrate, and no two year old is responsible for the paperwork that follows. Her family has said the status problem that later put her at risk came from immigration lawyers who took their money and failed to file on time. Whatever the precise history, one fact is not in dispute: nothing about Pauline's immigration situation was Pauline's doing. It is what she was handed as a child.

Her ordeal in detention began years ago at the Irwin County Detention Center, the facility that became a national scandal when a whistleblower and dozens of women exposed invasive gynecological procedures performed without consent. Pauline was one of those women. A doctor contracted through the facility removed part of her fallopian tube without her knowledge or permission. She refused to stay silent. She spoke out about what was done to her body, and her account helped expose the abuse for everyone else. In 2020, ICE tried to deport her anyway, and she was pulled off the plane only after members of Congress and a wave of public pressure intervened.

So when someone insists she must have done something to deserve this, here is the answer. Immigration detention is civil, not criminal, and Pauline's case is a civil immigration matter, not a criminal one. And anyone who claims to know why she was detained is guessing, because immigration records are not public the way criminal records are, so no one arguing about it online has actually seen her file. Her own member of Congress has called her a Dreamer. And no one's freedom from a cage depends on a perfect paperwork record.

After that release, Pauline survived years of physical, sexual, and emotional violence. She secured a protective order against her abuser. She obtained a U Visa Certification, which recognizes that the crimes committed against her make her eligible to apply for a U Visa, one of several legal pathways to citizenship she is pursuing. The point here is not that this makes her deserving. The point is that the law itself protects her, and ICE detained her anyway. According to her advocates, she has been held inside Stewart since December 2025, more than six months.

This is the heart of it. The government is breaking its own rules to cage a survivor it is legally bound to protect, and calling it enforcement. She belongs with Samiyah, her family, and her community. Not in a cell. Not in Cameroon.

Your plan: three steps, five minutes

You do not need to be an expert. You need to be a voice. Here is the plan.

Step 1. Call ICE and demand her release.

Kristen Sullivan, Acting Atlanta Field Office Director, ICE/ERO 404-893-1203 | Kristen.sullivan@ice.dhs.gov
Jason Streeval, Warden, Stewart Detention Center 229-838-5000
Jason W. Godwin, Deportation Officer, Stewart Detention Center Jason.w.godwin@ice.dhs.gov

Step 2. Call your members of Congress.

Rep. Sanford Bishop (GA District 2, which includes the area where Stewart is located) 706-320-9477
Senator Jon Ossoff 202-224-3521
Senator Raphael Warnock 202-224-3643

To find your state senator and representative, look up your address through the Georgia General Assembly's Find Your Legislator tool at https://www.legis.ga.gov/find-my-legislator.

Step 3. Donate and share.

Support Pauline's legal fees and immediate needs through the fundraiser organized by her advocates: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-support-a-single-mother-while-she-is-in-detention

Then send this post to three people who feel the same fury you do.

Scripts you can use and make your own

Two short scripts below, one for the ICE offices and one for Congress. Read it, swap in your own words, and call.

For the ICE offices (Step 1):

"Hello, my name is [Name], and I am a constituent from [City or Zip]. I am calling to urge [Target Name] to take urgent action in the case of Pauline Binam, a detained single mother and Black immigrant from Cameroon. Pauline has lived in the U.S. since the age of two, and this prolonged detention has violated her constitutional rights. While detained she has faced medical neglect, inhumane living conditions, and volatile treatment by officers. She is terrified to seek medical care after an unnecessary procedure removed part of her fallopian tube without her consent. That trauma demands support and care, not detention. Her detention has also harmed her daughter, who is in a mental health crisis during their separation. Pauline deserves to be there for her child, not in a cell. I am outraged at her ongoing unjust detention by ICE. She deserves to be with her daughter and to receive the care and resources she needs to be safe and well. Thank you for your time and consideration."

For your members of Congress (Step 2):

"Hello, my name is [Name], and I am a constituent from [City or Zip]. I am calling to urge [Target Name] to take urgent action in the case of Pauline Binam, a single mother to a U.S. citizen daughter, a survivor of domestic violence, and a long time U.S. resident from Cameroon. Pauline has been in the United States for more than 34 years. This is the only home she knows. Sending her back to Cameroon puts her at risk because she does not speak the language and because of her sexual orientation. Since her detention she has faced traumatizing and unnecessary medical procedures, inhumane conditions, and volatile treatment, and she fears for her health and wellbeing. Her 17 year old daughter, Samiyah, is in a mental health crisis and has been placed in multiple mental health facilities. Pauline needs to be with her, not in detention. As your constituent, I am outraged and horrified at her ongoing unjust detention by ICE. In 2020, Pauline's deportation was halted after pressure from advocates and members of Congress. I am asking you to visit Pauline at Stewart Detention Center to see her conditions firsthand, and to apply that same pressure again for her release. Thank you for your time and consideration."

If they push back, or claim she is a criminal:

"Immigration detention is civil, not criminal. Pauline has not been convicted of a crime. Her case comes from a childhood immigration status problem, and she is fighting it through legal channels, including a U Visa she qualifies for as a crime survivor. ICE is detaining a woman the law is supposed to protect. And no one, whatever their paperwork looks like, deserves non-consensual surgery, separation from their child, or deportation toward persecution. I am asking for her release."

The full #FreePauline toolkit has both of these scripts ready to copy, plus printable posters, hand signs, and flyers: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cwmgsOvFm-84WOR07SxDSHC-WFr6BlTxchUBaS8aMc4/edit

This has worked before. It can work again.

In 2020, calls and outcry pulled Pauline off a deportation flight at the last possible moment. People who had never met her decided they would not look away, and it changed the outcome. That is not a fluke. That is how these fights are won.

You can be one of those people today. Make the call. Share her story. Help bring Pauline home to Samiyah, and become part of a community that shows up and wins.