April 14, 2026, 6:44 p.m. PTA Woodburn mom who has been in immigration custody for more than 8 months will return to Oregon after a federal judge in Washington granted a habeas corpus petition and ordered her release on April 14.Marta Escalante Pérez was arrested, along with other Woodburn farmworkers, on Aug. 7, 2025 after federal immigration officers stopped and smashed the window of the van they were in on their way to work at a Canby blueberry farm. “DHS arrested and detained Marta not for anything particular about her, but because they had a detention quota to meet,” said Stephen Manning, executive director and attorney at Innovation Law Lab. “Today a federal court agreed that separating a mother away from her children to fill a detention bed is cruel, unnecessary, and illegal.”The new federal petition seeking her release was filed on March 20 with the assistance of law students from Lewis & Clark Law School, who are part of an immigration law class that has taught them to file habeas corpus petitions for people who have been wrongfully detained.Escalante Pérez's arrest came shortly before the federal government escalated immigration enforcement in Oregon. More than 1,655 people were arrested by federal officers across Oregon in 2025, according to data released by the University of Washington Center for Human Rights.Court records indicate she complied with the conditions of her release for years after she entered the United States and presented herself to agents in October 2015, fleeing sexual and domestic abuse in Guatemala.DHS even determined that her compliance merited the end of its removal proceedings against Escalante Pérez, the petition said. An immigration judge granted the joint motion to terminate the removal case on Jan. 20, 2023, her lawyers said.Escalante Pérez also faced domestic violence at the hands of her then-partner and father of her son, a U.S. citizen, whom she'd been with since 2019. He was arrested and charged with domestic violence against Pérez in 2021 and 2024, with additional charges including kidnapping and felonious assault, according to her lawyers.An initial habeas petition was granted for Escalante Pérez on Nov. 26, 2025 and a bond hearing was ordered. That bond hearing was held on Dec. 9, 2025 during which immigration Judge John Odell labeled Pérez a flight risk and denied her bond after just a few minutes, Manning told the Statesman Journal in March.There was no interpreter present, and the proceedings were not audio-recorded or transcribed."Petitioner has resided in the United States for over ten years, has been the victim of horrific abuse but has no criminal arrests or convictions of her own, has engaged in farmwork and other physical labor to support her family, and has two children, one of whom is a United States citizen, and both of whom are quite young and in need of parental supervision," U.S District Judge Thomas S. Zilly wrote in his order."The record unequivocally contradicts the immigration judge’s flight-risk finding," he added.The judge pointed to her two children and other family in Woodburn as evidence that she is rooted in the United States, as well as her steady employment and community connections."Because no Mam interpreter was provided for petitioner, no record of the bond hearing was created or provided for the Court’s review, and no explanation of the immigration judge’s reasoning has been offered, the Court is left without information concerning whether the immigration judge could even communicate with petitioner during the bond hearing and whether the immigration judge considered the relevant (or indeed any) factors in reaching his decision," the order said. "The Court must therefore conclude that the immigration judge’s flight-risk finding constitutes an abuse of discretion and that petitioner’s continued detention serves no immigration purpose."Escalante Pérez's U-Visa application is still pending. The order requires her immediate release and also bars immigration agents from detaining her again without first providing seven days' advance notice and a hearing.“Marta’s unlawful detention sheds light on how flawed our immigration laws are,” said Rachel Game, immigration attorney for Escalante Pérez. “This shows how someone who has suffered from so much violence and has sought safety in this country and now seeks a U-Visa, based on domestic violence she suffered in Oregon, can still be so unjustly harmed by the injustice of the immigration system. Tonight Marta is back with her children, who have suffered more than 8 months without their mother while she was unjustly detained.”Dianne Lugo covers the Oregon Legislature and equity issues. Reach her at dlugo@statesmanjournal.com on X @DianneLugo or Bluesky @diannelugo.bsky.social.