AUSTIN, Texas A woman locked at a family immigrant detention center tried to take her own life this month in what legal advocates described as a desperate effort to free her two kids.

Samira Hakimi, an Afghan national, has spent the last six months detained with her two young children despite a federal ruling that dictates they should have been released within three weeks. The case reinforces the longstanding concerns of immigrant rights groups that say asylum-seeking families should not be forced into prolonged detention.

They told us you will only be a couple of days in there, Hakimi told HuffPost. I never thought that I would be detained here for such a long time. That Im detained here because Im from Afghanistan and thats all. But Im human.

In Afghanistan, the Hakimi family had established a high school and multi-branch private university that used Western curricula, taught in both English and Dari and offered more than half its scholarships to women, according to lawyers representing Hakimi and her husband.

Since 2013, the Taliban repeatedly threatened the family for its work. To avoid the danger of commuting, the family moved onto the university campus and contracted private security guards that year.

It wasnt enough for them to feel safe. We could not go outside, Hakimi said. My children could not go to school. We thought they might be kidnapped. This was always in our minds.... They have their lives to live. They should live happy and free from every small thing, going to school and enjoying their lives.

Last year, they fled Afghanistan with Hakimis brother-in-law and his pregnant wife, who were facing similar threats.

In December, the two families crossed into the United States from Mexico through a legal port of entry, where they all asked for asylum. The men were separated and sent to all-male immigrant detention centers, where they remain. Hakimi and her kids, as well as her sister-in-law and her newborn baby, were sent to the South Texas Family Detention Center in the town of Dilley and later transferred to the Karnes County Residential Center outside San Antonio.

Hakimi passed her credible fear interview the first step toward applying for asylum. Its common practice for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to free people who pass these interviews so they can pursue their cases in immigration court, but ICE declined to release her and her children. The agency did not respond to a request for comment explaining why it refuses to release them. Hakimis sister-in-law is also still at Karnes with her 10-month-old baby.