Alma Bowman Wins Her Release From Detention
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 24, 2025
CONTACT:
James Woo (Atlanta), Director of Communications, media@advancingjustice-atlanta.org
ATLANTA, GEORGIA – Alma Bowman will finally be released from the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, and reunited with her family after spending eight months detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”). Alma secured her release through her tireless advocacy and with the legal representation of Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Atlanta (“Advancing Justice-Atlanta”) and the Center for Constitutional Rights, as well as advocacy by the Malaya Movement USA and Georgia, Tanggol Migrante Movement, GABRIELA USA, and the International Women’s Alliance.
On March 26, 2025, Alma attended her routine yearly check-in at the ICE Atlanta Field Office in a wheelchair, with her two children, legal team, and a crowd of supporters. Inside, ICE officers told her that she needed to be taken downstairs and separated from her attorney to be fingerprinted. But instead of being fingerprinted, she was detained and sent to Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia.
Alma has lived in Macon, Georgia, for nearly 50 years. Her father was a U.S. citizen serving in the U.S. Navy when he met Alma’s mother in the Philippines, where Alma was born. As the daughter of a U.S.-citizen father, she should have acquired citizenship under the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) of 1952. But the U.S. government has repeatedly refused to recognize Alma’s citizenship, leading to her being detained by ICE, exposing the ongoing implications of an arcane and racist law that Advancing Justice-Atlanta has been closely monitoring.
Alma was previously detained by ICE from 2017 to 2020 at the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia, a facility known for its documented human rights abuses against people in immigration detention. While detained at Irwin, she helped expose abuse by a doctor who was performing non-consensual gynecological procedures on immigrant women, bringing international spotlight to Georgia. Alma was released on an order of supervision in December 2020. Nevertheless, she was detained again by ICE, highlighting the cruelties of a broken and inhumane system.
Since being re-detained in March, Alma has tirelessly fought her unjust detention and for the government to recognize her citizenship. On July 30, 2025, Alma filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia arguing that her detention was unconstitutional and seeking her immediate release. She is represented by Advancing Justice-Atlanta and the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Alma’s adult children, Chris and John Mitchell, are eager to welcome their mother back home. “We are super excited that moomin gets to come home. It would have been another sad Thanksgiving without her. The plan is to get her some good home cooking and make sure she's comfortable while catching her up on all she's missed. We are still worried about the status of her ongoing case, but at least she will be with family instead of locked away while in this limbo.”
Alma’s legal team is also celebrating her long-awaited release. “We are so thrilled that Alma has been released from detention and has regained her freedom,” said Samantha Hamilton, Staff Attorney with Advancing Justice-Atlanta. “And we are once again inspired by Alma, who fought tirelessly for her release and for the release of dozens of other women who she has met during the last eight months that she has been in Stewart—a place she never should have been in in the first place.
"Alma is a drum major for justice," said Kayla Vinson, Staff Attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights. "We could not be happier that she will get to enjoy the end of the year where she should have been all along, at home with her family."
ICE released Alma after she spent 243 days in detention. Alma continues to push for the government to recognize her United States citizenship. We are glad she can now continue to do so in the company of her family and community who have been tirelessly fighting for her release since she was detained after her ICE check-in in March.
Alma’s release would not have been possible without the undying support of the organizers supporting her, who look forward to continuing their fight for immigrants’ rights. "While this is a major victory for Alma's family and friends, we as Tanggol Migrante, and the Defend Migrants Alliance will continue to fight for the genuine freedom for people like Alma, who see their issues connected to a shared experienced migrants face across the US,” said organizer June Colcol. “We encourage more people to join our movement and take collective action!"
Alma is supported by Malaya Movement USA, GABRIELA USA, and is part of the National Defend Migrant Workers Campaign and Tanggol Migrante Movement.
For more information on her legal case, see here.
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Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the civil rights of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI), and other marginalized communities in Georgia and the Southeast.
