March 25, 2026Updated March 26, 2026, 8:58 a.m. PTPortland-based Innovation Law Lab filed a new federal petition March 20 seeking emergency court intervention to halt the detention of a 29-year-old Woodburn mother who has been in federal custody for seven and a half months.Escalante Pérez was arrested Aug. 7 after federal immigration officers stopped and smashed the window of the van Woodburn farmworkers were traveling in on their way to work at a Canby blueberry farm. All four farmworkers, including Pérez, are members of the Mam Nation and Indigenous Guatemalans. The coalition Oregon for All and the Collective of Indigenous Interpreters of Oregon at Pueblo Unido decried their arrests."It's hard for me to conceptualize in any system that works that Marta would be detained," founder and executive director of the Innovation Law Lab Stephen Manning told the Statesman Journal. "She should not be detained under any normal, objective, reasonable person looking at this case."The August arrest came shortly before an escalation in immigration enforcement in Oregon. More than 1,655 people were arrested by federal officers across Oregon in 2025, according to new data released by the University of Washington Center for Human Rights.Lawyers in the new March 20 habeas corpus petition said federal immigration authorities have violated Escalante Perez's constitutional rights.Escalante Pérez said she provided her name to the agents and explained that her removal proceedings had been terminated when they swarmed the van and arrested her on Aug. 7.Woodburn mom's removal case dismissedEscalante Pérez entered the United States in October 2015 with her daughter after fleeing what lawyers described as sexual violence and "severe" domestic abuse in Guatemala. They said Escalante Perez presented herself to the first immigration agents she could find, and both were released on their own recognizance.Escalante Perez complied with the conditions of her release for years, according to lawyers, including in-person and telephone reporting and immigration court hearings.The U.S. Department of Homeland Security placed her in removal proceedings, and Escalante Pérez remained fully compliant with the process before Portland's Immigration Court. She applied for asylum and attended all scheduled hearings, court records said. DHS even determined that the circumstances merited the end of its removal proceedings against Escalante Pérez, the petition said.Her lawyers said an immigration judge granted the joint motion to terminate the removal case on Jan. 20, 2023.At the same time, Escalante Pérez was also facing 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.'She's been a double victim'Her lawyers said officers at the Portland ICE office recorded her fingerprints and verbally acknowledged that the removal case against her was closed in the DHS system.She was taken to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington anyway, and an agent also attempted to get Escalante Pérez to sign voluntary departure forms, which she refused. None asked whether Pérez had been the victim of a crime in the U.S., and at no point was she offered a Mam interpreter.An immigration judge denied her asylum application on Oct. 24, 2025, and ordered her removed from the country. An appeal of that decision is pending.In November, Escalante Pérez submitted a U-Visa application as the victim of a serious crime in the U.S. A Woodburn Police Department sergeant certified that she was the victim of domestic violence, kidnapping, and assault at the hands of her ex-partner in support of the U-Visa application, her lawyers wrote. That application is also pending."She's been a double victim," Manning explained. "Victim in Guatemala, victim of our own system for detaining her."An initial habeas petition was granted for Escalante Pérez on Nov. 26, and a bond hearing was ordered. That bond hearing was held on Dec. 9, during which immigration Judge John Odell labeled Pérez a flight risk and denied her bond after just a few minutes, Manning said.There was no interpreter present, and the proceedings were not audio-recorded or transcribed. Her lawyers said an 81-page evidence packet had also been prepared, including facts that Escalante Pérez had strong family ties in the United States, including her two minor children, has a pending U-visa application, no criminal record, and was in full compliance with previous immigration hearings.The packet also included the psychological evaluation of her 13-year-old daughter, documenting the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder after the detention of Escalante Pérez. It also included letters from Escalante Pérez's stepbrother, a lawful permanent resident, and the principal of the school Escalante Pérez's 5-year-old son attends, who wrote that the boy is displaying symptoms of distress.Manning said the quick decision was not unlike the determination made in the case of Albany mom Maria Loya Medina, who was also called a flight risk and denied bond despite "zero indication" she is a flight risk, he said.Lawyers filed an appeal of the no-bond decision against Escalante Pérez on March 17.Lawyers are asking a judge to declare that Escalante Pérez's detention violates her rights and to issue an order to immediately release her from custody.A DHS spokesperson in an emailed statement referred to Escalante Pérez as a "criminal illegal alien" and claimed she'd been convicted of driving under the influence."All of her claims will be heard before an immigration judge, and she will receive full due process," the spokesperson added. "Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, if you break the law, you will face the consequences. Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S.”Manning said DHS's claim that she had been convicted of driving under the influence was "100% not true" and reiterated that Escalante Pérez has no criminal record.Dianne Lugo covers the Oregon Legislature and equity issues. Reach her at dlugo@statesmanjournal.com on X @DianneLugo or Bluesky @diannelugo.bsky.social.