Olivia Andre, a 19-year-old asylum-seeker from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said she was overcome with emotion after learning that a federal judge ordered her release from ICE detention in Texas, where she has been held for about six months.

Details on Olivia Andre’s detention and the court order for her release

Andre, who has remained detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center while her mother and younger siblings were released in March, described how she felt the moment she heard the news, according to NBC News and Maine Morning Star.

“I couldn’t believe it. I started crying, shaking,” Andre told NBC News in an exclusive interview following the judge’s ruling. “I was so happy.”

On Wednesday, a federal district court in San Antonio ruled that Andre’s continued detention violated her constitutional right to due process and ordered her release by Friday, according to court documents obtained by NBC News.

Once released, Andre is expected to reunite with her mother, 16-year-old brother and 14-year-old sister in Maine.

However, despite the release order, Andre admitted she remained fearful that something could change at the last minute because many immigrants have spent such long periods of time in detention.

“Part of me was worried, scared about being detained for a long, long time,” she said, per NBC News. “A lot of people have been waiting months and months.”

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree on Andre’s detention: ‘She needlessly suffered in detention for six months.’

The move happened just hours after Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, and several other Democratic lawmakers visited U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Dilley Immigration Processing Center and described how migrants were living in inhumane conditions.

“Olivia should never have been left locked away in Dilley, far from her family, her community, and the life she was building in Portland,” Pingree said, per Maine Morning Star.

Andre’s attorney, Elora Mukherjee, argued that neither Andre nor her family should have been detained in the first place. She said the teen’s time in the detention facility has had a significant impact on her and called out the Trump administration over it.

“The federal court ordered Olivia’s release because the Trump administration had no lawful basis for detaining her,” she said, NBC News reported. “She needlessly suffered in detention for six months in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s protections. Her mental and physical health deteriorated during this time because she did not have access to sufficient clean drinking water, palatable food or appropriate medical care.”

The Department of Homeland Security defended Andre’s detention, stating that she is “an adult illegal alien with a final order of removal” and claiming that she had already received due process. DHS also vowed to continue pursuing deportations under President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, despite criticism from immigrant advocates, lawmakers and public figures who called for Andre’s release.

In 2022, Andre and her family fled from torture and abuse in the Congo. During their migration through South America, Andre witnessed her 8-year-old brother drown while attempting to cross a river, according to court documents and her attorney, as reported by NBC News.

Why did Andre and her family flee from the Congo?

The family later settled in Maine while seeking asylum. After their asylum case and appeal were denied, the family attempted to seek refuge in Canada but was returned to the United States, where immigration authorities detained them.

Because Andre was legally an adult, officials separated her from her mother and siblings and held her in ICE detention for months after the rest of her family received parole.

“I couldn’t think to get out of there and to leave one of my daughters behind me. I have already lost one of my children on our way to the United States. I never recovered from that, and I’m going through a lot of pain when I’m thinking about the fact that Olivia was left behind,” Mbizi said through an interpreter, according to NBC News.

Andre said she is excited to see her family and friends and to do all the things she enjoyed doing.

“So I can have that feeling to have my own choice again, to have something I wanted to have,” she said.