Zully Palacios Rodríguez
Biography
Zully Palacios Rodríguez is a Migrant Justice organizer detained by ICE on March 17, 2017, while travelling with Enrique Balcázar. Her lawsuit alleged that an informant helped ICE target organizers for protected activity. She was later released. The 2020 federal settlement included deferred action and compensation without an admission of wrongdoing; its protection was time-limited.
Case history and verification
Zully Palacios Rodríguez is a Migrant Justice organizer detained by ICE on March 17, 2017, while travelling with Enrique Balcázar. Her lawsuit alleged that an informant helped ICE target organizers for protected activity. She was later released. The 2020 federal settlement included deferred action and compensation without an admission of wrongdoing; its protection was time-limited.
Status reviewed October 8, 2026: Historical case. The profile records the last documented outcome; no current ICE custody is asserted.
Sources
Verified detail sources (October 8, 2026): The November 14, 2018 Migrant Justice complaint, paragraph 15, provides the named plaintiff’s biography and explicitly uses she/her and identifies her leadership in the women’s group. Source 1.
Photo source: Associated Press, via News4JAX. Photo by Lisa Rathke / AP. Zully Palacios Rodriguez is at the center. Source image reproduced without alteration.
The November 2018 Migrant Justice complaint alleges that ICE forbade Palacios Rodríguez from calling named Migrant Justice leaders or disclosing her location, and tried to induce her to sign voluntary departure by threatening two months of detention without bond. The threatened two months is not actual service or a criminal sentence and is not added to her custody total. The account is attributed to the plaintiffs, not presented as an adjudicated finding.
