Marta Escalante Perez was among several blueberry pickers detained by Department of Homeland Security agents last year in Woodburn. WOODBURN, Ore. — A federal judge has ordered the immediate release of an Oregon mother, one of the berry pickers detained last August in Woodburn by immigration officers. Innovation Law Lab said Marta Escalante Perez, 29, was reunited with her children on Tuesday. In the order, U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Zilly called an immigration judge's previous determination that Escalante Perez posed a flight risk an "abuse of discretion," adding that her detention "serves no immigration purpose." Judge Zilly's order also prohibits U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement from re-detaining her without seven days' advance notice and a hearing before a neutral decisionmaker. According to the Innovation Law Lab, on Aug. 7, 2025, Escalante Perez was on her way to work when DHS officers pulled over the van she was in, shattering the driver's side window, pulling the driver out of the van, and handcuffing her and the other passengers. Though Escalante Perez identified herself and explained that her removal proceedings had been terminated, DHS still took her to the Portland ICE facility. When community members reported the incident, Innovation Law Lab attorneys responded to the Portland ICE facility, but ICE officials refused them access, even though an agent confirmed that DHS systems showed that Escalante Perez's case had been closed — thus, there was no legal reason to detain or deport her, they said. She was then transferred to the detention center in Tacoma, where she was held for more than eight months. Agents attempted to pressure Escalante Perez into signing a voluntary departure form, which she refused to do, according to her attorneys. In December, Escalante Perez had a bond hearing, which lasted a few minutes. The judge marked her as a "flight risk," alleging she failed to respond when they attempted to contact her in 2020, and denied her release. According to court documents, Escalante Perez regularly contacted DHS and ICE, save for during the COVID-19 pandemic, which Zilly said is "more consistent with the COVID pandemic and petitioner’s struggles as a victim of domestic violence than with any risk that she will flee, particularly given her pending application for a U visa." During that hearing, Escalante Perez, who speaks Mam, an Indigenous Guatemalan language, was not provided with an interpreter. No transcript or recording was made. That's where Kathleen Pritchard, who represented Marta in her habeas petition, stepped in. “One of the central theories in that habeas petition was that a bond hearing that Marta had had in December of 2025 had violated her due process rights," she said. A habeas corpus petition is a legal action someone can take to challenge the legality of their detainment, with the purpose of protecting against arbitrary and unlawful detention, according to Innovation Law Lab. In 2015, Escalante Perez fled sexual violence and physical abuse in Guatemala, then applied for asylum in the U.S. “She suffered two instances of gang rapes when she was a minor child," said Pritchard. Escalante Perez is also a single mother of two young children, one of whom is a U.S. citizen. “They've been extremely traumatized by the months that they were separated from their mom, Marta was a single mother. She was also a survivor of domestic violence, and so, the children lost the one stable parent that they had for months, and that's time that they could never get back," said Pritchard. According to her attorney, DHS previously closed the case regarding her removal proceedings, meaning the government was not trying to remove her at the time of her arrest. “She was actually previously in removal proceedings, which the government, DHS, chose to close; they chose to close the case against her, finding that it was no longer in the government's interest to prosecute a removal case against her," said Pritchard. A DHS spokesperson previously told KGW that Escalante Perez had a conviction for driving under the influence, but KGW could not find any record of a DUII conviction in Oregon for Escalante Perez. Court documents also note that Escalante Perez has been "crime free" during the over 10 years she's lived in the U.S. “We found no record of any DUI that Marta has on her record. We found no record of any criminal history for Marta," said Pritchard. “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, in a press release. “Today a federal court agreed that separating a mother away from her children to fill a detention bed is cruel, unnecessary and illegal.” Pritchard explained that filing habeas corpus petitions have proved successful when getting their clients out of detention. "It's been an extremely successful tool. And our office has filed a number of habeas petitions. So far, based on my knowledge, I believe we've lost only one," she said. When it comes to whether immigration enforcement has increased or decreased in recent months, groups like Latinos Unidos Siempre, which primarily covers the Salem area, said it's varied, but overall has trended down. “Detainments in general did decrease for a few weeks. We had not seen detainments in Salem or Kaiser last month, and then they started again in April," said Sandra Hernandez, the director of youth programs with Latinos Unidos Siempre. “Today, we actually had another detention. I believe this is our sixth or seventh detention in the last six weeks, and so, we see that the detainments are increasing again," she said. Pritchard also commented on the pattern she's been seeing. “Thankfully, we've seen a significant drop in detentions. We hope to see that continue, but in the meantime, we are still working hard to file habeas petitions like the one in Marta’s case, to continue to ensure that folks that were swept up in the significant detentions that we saw over the fall, get out of detention.” KGW reached out to DHS for comment multiple times Wednesday, with questions related to Marta's Escalante Perez's detainment and release. On Thursday, they responded with the same statement as previously issued, that stated once again in part that, “On August 7, 2025, ICE arrested Marta Cecilia Escalante Perez, a criminal illegal alien, convicted of driving under the influence."