Brooklyn-based Guyanese social media activist Melissa Ann Holder, better known as ‘Melly Mel,’ used her social media platform to call out alleged corruption in Guyana. But after spending several weeks in a Louisiana immigration detention facility, she believes her advocacy was what ultimately led to her detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in early March.
She is now accusing Guyana’s ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) of playing a role in her detention. “No one could have known I overstayed my visa by two days before marriage unless it came from the inside,” she said in a social media post. “The PPP activists who called ICE specifically refer to the two-day overstay, which was the loophole identified by the lobbying firm. This is coordination at the highest level.”
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Holder used her social media platforms to expose a network of alleged corruption involving high-ranking officials and their close associates. Her reports alleged that high-ranking officials were awarding contracts to friends and associates, sometimes using these individuals as fronts to funnel money back to the officials themselves.
Despite being detained before being released on a $7,500 bond on March 28, Holder expressed a renewed determination to continue her activism. “For those who think I am traumatized and will go silent, think again — the work has now started,” she said in the online post. “I am now in a position to expose their corruption on a global level like never before.”
On March 13, Holder was detained by ICE in New York and transported to the Richwood Correctional Center in Louisiana. She claims that personal information — such as details about her overstaying on her visa and U.S. identification numbers — were leaked to a lobbying firm with ties to the PPP, which ultimately reported her to ICE.
Holder alleges that the PPP government had direct involvement in her detention, pointing to how quickly and specifically details about her ICE arrest were made public. She believes this information could only have been leaked by someone inside the U.S. bureaucracy who fed it to a lobbying firm, which then passed it on to PPP sources. “No one in Guyana could have known so quickly that I was being detained and taken to ICE office at that hour in the morning,” she wrote on Facebook.
Holder’s lawyer, Joyce Booth, described her arrest as “a mystery.” During her release hearing on March 28, Judge Francis Mwangi acknowledged Holder’s marriage to a U.S. citizen and noted that she had no criminal record and did not present a flight risk. The judge set her bond and allowed her to proceed with her immigration status adjustment application. Her case was transferred to a court in New York if there were to be removal proceedings in the future.
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“The U.S. government swept their systems ten times over, all stones were overturned and there is nothing,” Holder said on social media. “I have a clean bill of health, I am a law-abiding human rights activist.”
Holder said that while she was in detention she received support from international organizations and began developing resources to expand her advocacy efforts. Her supporters launched a GoFundMe campaign, “Help Melissa Atwell Defend Democracy,” which raised over $39,000 toward its $100,000 goal.
Her lawyer said that an I-130 (the first step to help an eligible relative apply to immigrate to the United States and apply for a Green Card) has been approved and she has a pending I-45 (application for Legal Permanent Residence) with the US Citizenship and Immigration Service.
While the government of Guyana has denied any involvement in her arrest, top officials have expressed interest in her return to Guyana to face lawsuits for alleged libel and cybercrimes after she made several allegations of high-level corruption in the government.
During her arrest, the ruling PPP’s General Secretary and Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, said she would be welcomed back if she was sent home.
In denying their involvement, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Mohabir Anil Nandlall during one of his weekly online programs said the government has no authority over U.S. immigration policies, calling allegations of political interference “entirely unfounded.”
Meanwhile, several factions of the Guyanese population have accused Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali and his administration of being behind her arrest, including opposition parties like the People’s National Congress Reform.
While granting Holder bond, Judge Mwangi set a deadline of April 18, 2025, for her legal team to submit copies of her I-130 and I-485 applications.
