Tope Awe said she thought her interview at the Department of Homeland Security office in Milwaukee last week was dragging on a bit too long. And then, the University of Wisconsin-Madison student recalled, in came the plastic bags.
“As soon as I saw the plastic bags, I realized what was happening,” Awe recalled in an interview. Immigration agents suddenly entered the interview room carrying the bags to collect personal belongings from her and her brother, Benga Awe. “I don’t even know how to describe it. I had no idea what to do,” said the 22-year-old Pharmacy School student, who remembered breaking down in tears.
On Thursday, Awe was back at school, trying to catch up on her missed classes after being released two days earlier from the Dodge County Jail, where she and her brother were detained on an immigration hold.