Marta Escalante Perez, a 29-year-old indigenous Mam mother from Guatemala, was picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in early August 2025 while she was on her way to pick berries near Woodburn, Oregon. She is now being held at a regional ICE facility in Tacoma, while her 5-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter stay with her brother. Family members and advocates say she fled years of violence in Guatemala and is now fighting deportation from inside U.S. custody.
Escalante Perez first applied for asylum, then later filed for U nonimmigrant status. Immigration records show U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services received her U visa petition on Dec. 4, 2025 and waived the filing fee. An immigration judge denied her release on bond on Dec. 9, 2025, and she has remained in custody while appealing a deportation order. These case details were reported by OregonLive.
Court Fight Intensifies
Her lawyers filed a federal habeas petition in October 2025 that challenges her detention and related practices at the Northwest ICE processing center. In late November, a federal court issued orders linked to that petition, including a temporary restraining order and additional rulings that advanced the multi-plaintiff litigation and limited transfers while the case moved forward. Those developments are noted in the public court docket for the habeas case on Habeas Dockets.
Family, Lawyer And Lawmakers
Attorney Rachel Game says the government cited an unanswered phone call and a 2020 letter to argue that Escalante Perez was a flight risk and had not contacted counsel at the time. U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.) has urged USCIS to speed up review of the U petition and has said ICE custody is “keeping her from her children and traumatizing their family.” Police reports and court filings cited by advocates state that Escalante Perez’s former partner was convicted on several charges in 2022 and 2024, and that her daughter reported seeing the stepfather strike her mother, according to OregonLive.
What A U Visa Does, And What It Does Not
U nonimmigrant status is designed to protect victims of certain qualifying crimes who help law enforcement, offering potential work authorization and a possible path to lawful permanent residency. USCIS and Department of Homeland Security guidance also make clear that filing a U petition does not automatically stop removal proceedings or guarantee release from detention, and that petitions typically require a law enforcement certification and can take years to resolve. Advocates say expedited USCIS action or successful bond hearings are the main legal tools to prevent removal while U claims are pending. USCIS…