A six-month saga involving the detention of a 38-year-old Belarusian kindergarten teacher, Veranika Kazlouskaya, who lives in Florida, has ended with her return home. Her husband, Roland Zhuchkou, reported the news on Facebook.
Details of the incident that took place on 16 May 2025 in the city of Plantation were earlier reported by Zerkalo. Veranika was returning home with her two older daughters and her three-month-old son. The baby had fallen asleep in the car, where the climate control was on. According to the woman, she decided to unload the bags and accompany the older children to the apartment first, leaving the baby in a car seat on the back seat of the parked Tesla.
“I arrived home, let the older kids out, grabbed all the bags and went to unload them. (…) So he was sleeping in the car with the climate control on — it wasn’t hot or stuffy. And while I was unloading everything, a passerby noticed the baby in the car and called the police,” she said.
Police arrived within minutes. The situation was deemed child endangerment, and the woman was arrested.
A few days later ICE agents intervened. Her husband said: “On 20 May ICE agents detained her.” Initially she was held in Florida, then on 26 May she was transferred to an immigration detention center in New Mexico.
“My wife Veranika has legally lived in the United States since 2017 with pending asylum status. She came from Belarus, earned a master’s degree in New York, worked as a teacher and always paid taxes. She had all valid documents, a work permit, an ID. She had never violated U.S. laws. On 20 May ICE agents detained her. First she was taken to a facility in Florida, and then, on 26 May, transferred to an immigrant detention center in New Mexico,” her husband, Zhuchkou, said.
Although the criminal charges were later dropped — the family presented evidence showing a lack of intent — immigration authorities refused to release her. According to Zhuchkou, the reason was her original entry on a tourist visa and the subsequent change of status after marriage: “Now ICE accuses her of violating the terms of a tourist visa… She didn’t violate anything, she just became a wife. But now she is accused of ‘violating visa rules.’”
On 14 July the family was denied release on bond. The fight for her freedom continued for several more months. According to her husband, about USD 30,000 was spent on legal services.
On 15 November he reported that the case was closed and Veranika had finally returned home.
“The day when the heart came home. Today I am writing the update I had dreamed of through all these long months. Those months we lived — not the calendar. Months that broke us and put us back together. Months when we held on only because we believed she would come home. And now… this day has come. When I saw her photo from the plane, sitting by the window, quiet, tired, but alive… When I realized that the door of that detention center had closed behind her forever… When I understood that she was breathing free air and could simply look at the sky again — that was the moment something inside me let go for the first time in six months. Not victory. Not joy. But the return of life.
Do you know what a person looks like after not seeing her children for six months? That’s not just a mother. That’s a heart beating into emptiness. That’s a breath living only on hope. That’s a woman who woke up and fell asleep every day in a cage, while somewhere far away her baby took his first steps, cut his first tooth, said his first word… but without her. And now that same woman is sitting on a plane, looking out the window, flying back to us. To her family. To her home. To her freedom,” he wrote.
“Today I share with you the finale. The finale we fought for every day, every document, every night… Veranika is home! The case is closed! Welcome to the United States! And I am still amazed by Belarusians. What kind, calm, truly warm people they are. When our story began, they responded first — without unnecessary words, without noise. They simply stepped in and helped. Thanks to Belarusians we managed to raise money, find a lawyer, stay afloat when it felt like we had no strength left. It is an incredible feeling to know there are such people around. People who do good quietly, humanely, from the heart. And I am grateful to each one of them,” he added.
He thanked the office of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Siarhei Tsikhanouski, Tsikhanouskaya’s legal adviser Leanid Marozau, the Association of Belarusians in America and all those who supported the family.
