PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — An Oregon woman who has been in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement since August 2025 was released this week. U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly in Seattle ordered the release of Marta Escalante Perez on April 14 from the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Wash., where she had been held for the last eight months. “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 for Innovation Law Lab, who represented her. Escalante is a single mother of two young children and has been in the U.S. since she fled violence in Guatemala 10 years ago. While riding to work to pick blueberries in Woodburn in August, she was detained by federal agents. According to her lawyers, Escalante was denied access to an attorney while at the Portland ICE facility. They also tried to make her sign a voluntary departure form, but she refused. Escalante first applied for asylum in 2015, according to court documents. Upon reviewing her case at that time, the Department of Homeland Security released her on her own recognizance on certain conditions. Escalante cooperated, and in 2023 DHS moved to dismiss their removal proceedings. Then, in August, Escalante was detained and transported to the Northwest ICE Processing Center, where she was held in mandatory detention as an application for admission. An immigration judge in Tacoma issued a no bond order in December. The judge ruled that despite her ties to the community and record of compliance, Escalante was a flight risk and not to be released. Attorneys for Escalante said no interpreter was provided even though she speaks Mam, an indigenous Guatemalan language. There was also no recording or transcript of the proceeding. “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,” said Rachel Game, who represented Escalante. “Tonight Marta is back with her children, who have suffered more than 8 months without their mother while she was unjustly detained.” Judge Zilly’s order said the record contradicts the immigration judge’s flight-risk ruling, since Escalante has cooperated while she’s been in the country and has no criminal record. In addition to ordering the immediate release of Escalante, the judge also ruled that she cannot be re-detained without seven days advance notice and a neutral decision-maker. A spokesperson for DHS did not respond to an email request for comment by deadline.