Claudio Cortez-Herrera, a green card holder from Mexico who has lived in the U.S. for more than two decades and has two U.S. citizen children, has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials for over two months.
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Cortez-Herrera, 34, has been in the U.S. for over two decades, his fiancee Leticia Ortiz Lopez wrote in an online fundraiser seeking financial assistance for legal fees and child support. He is the father of their two U.S. citizen children, a 2-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old son with autism.
She told local outlet 13 On Your Side that he was on his way to work and “putting in the house payment across the street at the drop box post office, when he got surrounded by 10 ICE agents, and he was taken.”
ICE confirmed in a Facebook post that Cortez-Herrera was arrested by Detroit-based immigration officials on April 23. Newsweek confirmed in the ICE detainee database that he is still in custody, held at the Calhoun County Correctional Center in Battle Creek, Michigan.
In the Facebook post, ICE noted Cortez-Herrera’s previous criminal record, writing, “Convicted in New Castle, Del [Delaware],” noting that his conviction was for “Planning first-degree arson & first-degree reckless endangering.”
Newsweek has been unable to independently verify the conviction.
His wife said in the GoFundMe: “Over 20 years ago, as a teen, he made a mistake. He took responsibility and left that life behind.”
Green card-holder with 2 US citizen kids held by ICE for over two months
Claudio Cortez-Herrera, who has been in the U.S. for decades but served seven months on a racketeering charge as a teen, has been detained by ICE.
According to the study, 2.28 million immigrants living in California are undocumented; they make up nearly 8% of the state’s workforce
Earlier this month, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released a statement in which it said the agency had arrested more than 66,000 undocumented immigrants as well as deported an additional 65,682 people during the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term.
ICE’s stepped-up enforcement has focused heavily on sanctuary cities, including Los Angeles, as the administration seeks to meet its stated target of 3,000 deportations per day.
As immigration enforcement actions intensify, a new study by the University of California, Merced warns that mass deportations could cause serious damage to the state’s economy. The report estimates that removing California’s undocumented immigrant population would result in a $275 billion economic hit and a loss of $23 billion annually in local, state and federal tax revenue.
Mass Deportations of Undocumented Immigrants Could Cost California $275 Billion, Study Finds
A new study by the University of California, Merced warns that mass deportations could cause serious damage to the state’s economy.
A series of lawsuits against ICE highlight the legal grey areas the agency exploits for Trump’s deportations
President Donald Trump‘s mass deportation agenda has left law enforcement agencies across the country facing numerous lawsuits.
Outside of lawsuits against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, local police departments are being dragged into court for cooperating with largely unpopular deportations and raids. In New York’s Nassau County, one lawsuit argues that a partnership between police and ICE is “unlawful.”
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In Washington, D.C., watchdog organization American Oversight is suing over access to documents concerning immigration procedures.
The group seeks records related to recent actions taken by ICE, such as entering schools and churches, along with internal records of Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard to Los Angeles. The lawsuit calls the deportations “aggressive, sweeping, and by the President’s own tacit admission<—politically motivated.” In San Antonio, a Honduran mother is suing the Trump administration over her family’s detention by ICE. The woman was detained during a visit to Los Angeles Immigration court, along with her two young children, one of whom has leukemia.
The arrest was part of a larger ICE policy of seeking out migrants attempting to navigate their legal status in the country, with particular focus on immigration hearings. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was arrested during one such confrontation after asking to see an arrest warrant from federal agents.
The family in the Los Angeles case were attending asylum status hearings. They have since been detained in Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas.
“The horrors that this family has suffered should never be felt by a child in need of medical care. Arresting immigrants as they step out of a courtroom is a heinous display of disregard for humanity. This family came to the United States seeking safety, but inhumane policies are preventing them from seeking necessary medical care for their child,” said Kate Gibson Kumar, a staff attorney for the Texas Civil Rights Project Beyond Borders program.
“Unlawful and unconstitutional”: Lawsuits against ICE mount nationwide for “unconscionable” actions
A series of lawsuits against ICE highlight the legal grey areas the agency exploits for Trump’s deportations
A Honduran woman filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of her and her family’s detention at a Texas facility.
She is also asking for a preliminary injunction that would prevent her family’s immediate deportation to Honduras as her 6-year-old son battles acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
A Central American asylum applicant arrested outside an L.A. immigration court is suing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security and the Trump administration for her immediate release and that of her two children, including her 6-year-old son stricken with cancer.
The Honduran woman, not named in court documents, filed a petition for writs of habeas corpus, challenging the legality of her and her family’s detention at a Texas facility. She is also asking for a preliminary injunction that would prevent her family’s immediate deportation to Honduras, as her children cry and pray nightly to be released from a Texas holding facility, according to court documents.
She and her two children, including a 9-year-old daughter, are facing two removal proceedings concurrently: a previous removal proceeding involving their asylum request and this recent expedited removal process.
The woman claims the government violated many of their rights, including the due process clause of the 5th Amendment.
Her attorneys noted that DHS determined she was not a flight risk when she was paroled and that her detention was unjustified.
The woman’s lawyers also argued that she was not given an opportunity to contest her family’s detention in front of a neutral adjudicator, and that the family’s 4th Amendment right to not be unlawfully arrested was violated.
ICE seizes 6-year-old with cancer outside L.A. court. His mom is fighting for his release
A Honduran woman is fighting to prevent her family’s immediate deportation to Honduras as her 6-year-old son battles acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
The 287(g) program allows local police to work with ICE as a “force multiplier” during immigration enforcement operations.
Immigrant rights groups sued a Long Island county Tuesday over an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that allows local police to carry out immigration enforcement.
Nassau County in February became the first county in New York to make a deal with ICE since President Donald Trump was inaugurated. The program — known as a 287(g) agreement after the federal law that authorizes such partnerships — allows law enforcement agencies to partner with ICE as a “force multiplier” to make immigration arrests.
Advocates and community groups, including the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, the Central American Refugee Center and the Haitian-American Family of Long Island, said in their lawsuit that the partnership exceeds Nassau police’s authority under state law and allows a police agency already dogged by accusations of racial profiling to discriminate against the immigrant community. The lawsuit, filed in New York Supreme Court, names the county and its police department as defendants.
Long Island police sued after partnering with ICE to enforce immigration
Advocates sued Nassau County after it became the first New York county to partner with ICE after President Donald Trump took office.
A Denver judge on Wednesday granted a preliminary injunction blocking Colorado Gov. Jared Polis from ordering certain state employees to comply with an ICE subpoena for personal information about undocumented children and their sponsors.
The ruling delivers a legal setback to Polis and a win for whistleblower Scott Moss, a top labor official in the governor’s administration, who sued to block the disclosures.
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Denver District Judge A. Bruce Jones called the ICE subpoena “overly broad,” noted that it wasn’t issued by a court, and suggested it may serve purposes beyond what’s stated, including to help with deportation efforts.
Judge blocks Colorado governor from forcing some staff to aid ICE subpoena
A Denver judge granted a preliminary injunction blocking Gov. Jared Polis from ordering certain state employees to comply with an ICE subpoena for personal information about undocumented children and their sponsors.
ICE agents detain mother in Pasadena in front of children without showing a warrant (and the mother wasn’t who they were looking for — 3 masked men just jumped out of a car and grabbed her)
A mother walking with her children in Pasadena was taken into custody by immigration agents over the weekend in an incident that was partially captured on video and has drawn sharp criticism from witnesses.
Rosalina Luna Vargas, a mother of two and the primary breadwinner for her family, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on Saturday morning around 8 a.m., according to bystanders. Her children were present at the time of the incident, which took place in broad daylight in the corner of Catalina and Del Mar.
The encounter was recorded by Jillian Reed, a Caltech alum and local resident, who was driving by when she noticed a commotion on the sidewalk.
In the footage she captured, three individuals in plain clothes—two of whom were masked and wore badges on lanyards—can be seen attempting to force Vargas into an unmarked Honda Accord. A third man, appearing younger and without any visible identification, also participated.
“I saw the commotion while driving, and when I slowed down, the kids shouted for help,” Reed said. “They kept asking for a warrant. They told the officers they would stop resisting if they just showed them a warrant. One of the men said he had one but didn’t show it.”
The video cuts off just as Vargas’s daughter pleads with Reed to call the police. According to Reed, she did call 911, reporting what she believed at the time to be a possible kidnapping.
As the situation escalated, Vargas allegedly broke free from the agents and ran into the courtyard of the nearby Del Mar Park Assisted Living Facility, with her children following close behind. The agents pursued, but were confronted again by the children, who physically tried to shield their mother.
“They formed a human wall,” Reed said. “One of the kids clung to her, telling her, ‘Don’t let go! Don’t let go!’ while crying. Then he started shouting to the crowd, ‘I can’t lose my mom!’”
Reed said the staff at the assisted living facility intervened, telling the agents they were on private property and could not proceed without a warrant. The agents, she said, took photos of everyone present—including Reed—before leaving in two separate vehicles.
Pasadena police later arrived and took statements from those at the scene. According to Reed, ICE agents returned later and took Vargas into custody.
A family member told Reed the warrant in question was for someone else entirely, and that Vargas and her children had simply been “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Community members say the incident highlights growing concerns over ICE’s arrest tactics and the lack of transparency in operations conducted in public areas without coordination with local law enforcement.
Reed, still shaken, called the incident “horrific” and questioned whether law enforcement procedures were followed.
“Only two of the three men had badges, and none were in uniform,” she said. “I didn’t know if I was witnessing a hate crime or a kidnapping. And because they might have been law enforcement, I wasn’t even sure whether to call the police.”
ICE has not publicly released details about the arrest, including the charges or the identity of the agents involved.
The incident comes as federal immigration enforcement actions have intensified in parts of Southern California, prompting backlash in immigrant communities and renewed debate about due process, civil rights, and the rights of children in enforcement situations.
ICE agents detain mother in Pasadena in front of children without showing a warrant
A mother walking with her children in Pasadena was taken into custody by immigration agents over the weekend in an incident that was partially captured on video and has drawn sharp criticism from w…
Freedom of the press and civil rights groups are rallying around a journalist who was put in immigration custody after being arrested while covering a protest in Atlanta, warning that his detention could chill press freedoms and put noncitizen journalists at risk.
Mario Guevara, an independent digital journalist who reports in Spanish, has been held for a week after law enforcement officials turned him over to Immigration and Custom Enforcement.
Guevara has authorization to live and work in the U.S., his attorney, Giovanni Diaz, told The Associated Press. Guevara also has an application pending with the Department of Homeland Security for legal permanent residency, sponsored by an adult son who is a U.S. citizen, the attorney said.
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Guevara was arrested June 14 while livestreaming a “No Kings” protest against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies in the Embry Hills neighborhood near Atlanta.
Backlash after ICE detains journalist covering ‘No Kings’ immigration protests
Press groups are calling for the release of Mario Guevara, an independent journalist who faces deportation after he was arrested and charged with misdemeanors while covering a protest.
Border czar Tom Homan has revealed that he’s living away from his wife because of death threats he’s receiving.
“I spent a lot of time with my boys growing up, but as I got more and more — climbed the ladder of what I’ve done with ICE director and now back — I don’t see my family very much,” Homan told Post columnist Miranda Devine during an interview airing Wednesday on her new podcast, “Pod Force One.”
Glad to hear that the piece of human detritus is experiencing at least a little bit of the fear and anxienty that he and his cronies inflict on thousands of American immigrants.
Exclusive | Border czar Tom Homan tells ‘Pod Force One’ he’s living apart from his wife over death threats
“I see her as much as I can, but the death threats against me and my family are outrageous,” Homan told Post columnist Miranda Devine on her new podcast “Pod Force One.”
However, Delegate Mike Jones (D-Richmond), who represents parts of Chesterfield County, said ICE hasn’t provided any evidence to show that those who were arrested were actually violent criminals.
“They’re just dressed in basic clothes, but then they’re snatching people,” Jones said. “What type of message is that to send in America?”
Jones added that ICE is striking fear into the community, something that may lead to immigrants not reporting criminal activity or refusing to show up to courts for any reason.
“They will remain silent, and that just means they are opening themselves up to be targeted even more,” Jones said.
Virginia lawmakers react to ICE arrests at the Chesterfield County Courthouse
