Maria Murillo and her household have been stuffed with hope in the beginning of this week at their Pomona residence.
In spite of everything, there was an opportunity — if a Texas immigration choose dominated their manner — that her household was about to be reunited.
After a month aside, Murillo’s husband, and the daddy of their youngsters, was on the cusp of lastly coming residence.
Till he wasn’t.
RELATED: Practically 2,800 undocumented immigrants have been detained in Los Angeles space since early June, DHS says
Jose Luis Zavala, a gardener, was certainly one of hundreds of immigrants swept up final month in President Donald Trump’s large nationwide immigration crackdown. Now detained in a Texas detention middle, his journey midway throughout the nation is a mirrored image of many with a now elusive path to freedom.
It’s a path that runs by means of an more and more advanced federal immigration system, already unclear to many Individuals, the place attorneys, households and detainees face a pipeline of evolving interpretation of guidelines and expanded federal authority, claimed by a brand new presidential administration.
As Zavala’s lawyer stated: “Be prepared for surprises.”
These surprises, as Zavala and his household discovered this week, may impression how lengthy detainees may very well be in custody, whether or not they are going to stay on this nation or rejoin households within the U.S.
For weeks, Zavala and his household have discovered themselves among the many targets of the federal government’s mammoth authorized battle to deport hundreds of thousands of immigrants within the nation illegally — an effort fueled by relentless reminders by the president and his officers to make use of federal regulation enforcement to purge the “worst of the worst” felons from the nation.
For the Trump administration, Zavala’s 20-year-old DUI cost — which had been cleared from his file — and his undocumented standing, rely him as among the many “worst,” regardless of the cost having been cleared and a file of elevating a household, with a job, within the U.S. for years.
Like many, current weeks have been stuffed with uncertainty, as days flip into weeks in federal custody, and as increasing interpretations of long-standing federal guidelines solid a shadow over a detainee’s destiny.
As his household waited, Zavala was within the crosshairs of the Trump administration’s large enlargement of a federal drive that put he and hundreds of thousands in jeopardy of being detained indefinitely.
Maria Murillo, spouse of ICE detainee Jose Luis Zavala locations her hand on the sofa the place she would sit together with her husband Jose after he would get residence from a protracted day working and return residence to be together with his household in Pomona, on Thursday, July 17, 2025. (Picture by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
Towards all that, practically one month after he was apprehended, Zavala took an enormous step towards strolling out of an El Paso detention middle, together with his eldest son and daughter to fly residence to Pomona.
However in a span of 48 hours, pleasure turned to sorrow after the federal government utilized the brakes, his household and attorneys stated.
It’s a glimpse on the sort of turbulence Southern California immigrant households face towards a backdrop of a mammoth elimination technique designed to deport hundreds of thousands.
Rewind to June 18: From LA’s B-18 to El Paso
On June 18, Zavala was on his lunch break on a La Mirada gardening job when federal immigration brokers converged.
“I’m (expletive)” he texted his spouse, however in Spanish.
Inside moments, he was ushered into the rear seat of an SUV and brought to the basement of the Edward R. Roybal Constructing, the downtown Los Angeles ICE detention middle the place in a facility referred to as – B-18- scores of detainees – fathers corresponding to Zavala, moms, aunts and uncles — have been taken and processed since raids started all around the area in early June.
It’s the primary cease in processing detainees, throughout which officers confirm their identities earlier than transporting them to detention facilities. It’s additionally the place their households and legal professionals have come seeking their family members.
On June 18, Murillo and her daughter have been amongst them. They’d come to see Zavala and provides him important remedy for his diabetes. Murillo was fortunate to get in after repeated tries, for a fleeting second with the patriarch of the household of Murillo and their 4 youngsters.
They left in tears, amid the early uncertainty of the raids blanketing Southern California. What did he do incorrect, they questioned? Would he merely be deported on the spot? Would he get any sort of medical care?
For ICE and the Homeland Safety, what Zavala did was crystal clear.
“Jose Luis Savala Ramirez was encountered by CBP in 2002 and agreed to return to Mexico rather than face a final order of removal or other penalties,” stated Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at DHS Tricia McLaughlin stated on the time. “He then illegally entered the nation once more and in 2006 he was encountered by CBP with falsified immigration paperwork. Ramirez has a Felony DUI conviction from 2005, however California dangerously created a program in 2021 to dismiss these to forestall conviction as standards for elimination.“
Whereas immigration advocates warning that undocumented immigrants are extra deportable if they’ve a conviction, immigrants have certainly benefited from state legal guidelines that dismiss convictions underneath sure circumstances.
In 2017, California Penal Code §1473.7 took impact, erasing the hostile impacts that very outdated convictions can have on folks.
Folks may vacate an outdated conviction or sentence if newly found proof proved their innocence; if it was introduced over racial or ethnic prejudice or bias; or if there was prejudicial error damaging an accused particular person’s “ability to meaningfully understand, defend against, or knowingly accept the actual or potential adverse immigration consequences of a conviction or sentence.”
Echoing the Division of Homeland Safety stance, company attorneys have argued that convictions vacated underneath the state’s regulation stay “convictions” for immigration functions.
A few week after the arrest, Murillo would be taught that her husband was being transferred out of L.A. to the detention middle in El Paso, Texas.
The uncertainty heightened, now so many miles away.
Enlargement of federal rule casts shadow
Extra uncertainty would come.
That’s when Todd M. Lyons, performing director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, wrote staff on July 8 that the company was revisiting its “extraordinarily broad and equally complex” authority to detain folks. It was efficient instantly, which means folks could be ineligible for a bond listening to earlier than an immigration choose. As a substitute, now, they can’t be launched except the Homeland Safety Division makes an exception.
RELATED: Who’s in ICE detention in California? In response to ICE, lower than 30% are criminals
The directive, first reported by The Washington Submit, signaled a wider use of a 1996 regulation to detain individuals who had beforehand been allowed to stay free whereas their circumstances wind by means of immigration courtroom.
He instructed officers that immigrants must be detained “for the duration of their removal proceedings.” The motion was an enormous hit to these combating deportation, as a result of, in response to immigration legal professionals, these proceedings may take months or years and will impact hundreds of thousands.
Maria Murillo, spouse of ICE detainee Jose Luis Zavala has their wedding ceremony picture at an alter in the lounge of the household residence with a candle burning in Pomona on Thursday, July 17, 2025. (Picture by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
Zavala was amongst these hundreds of thousands. His lawyer, Arturo Burga, understanding his consumer, Zavala, was requesting a bond listening to on the El Paso federal hub after weeks in detention, was getting apprehensive.
“Yeah. I definitely was concerned. I went from very confident, to ‘oh no. I hope they don’t mention that.”
The July 15 listening to in entrance a Division of Justice administrative regulation choose could be a pivotal second. At stake was whether or not Zavala may stroll out on $5,000 bond. If he loses, he stays in and the federal government would acquire a victory in efforts to deport him. If he wins, the outlook is vibrant – as launch may assist him struggle in his deportation proceedings – a protection towards deportation, his lawyer stated.
For Burga, the ICE memo was a jolt, regardless of confidence his consumer had a robust case.
“I’m like, ‘what is going on? This is going to be so hard to overcome.”
Historically, at the very least in California, shoppers who weren’t a menace have been launched on bond, and will proceed their deportation proceedings, with their attorneys and households, all exterior of the confines of a federal detention middle.
However the authorities — nationalizing an method stated to turn into a rising follow amongst some immigration judges within the nation to jail folks for extended extended durations – appeared intent on doubling down, even on of us who many stated should not the hardened criminals — the “worst of the worst” — that officers pledged to deport.
Requested by the Related Press final week to touch upon the memo, McLaughlin stated. “The Biden administration dangerously unleashed millions of unvetted illegal aliens into the country — and they used many loopholes to do so. President (Donald) Trump and Secretary (Kristi) Noem are now enforcing this law as it was actually written to keep America safe.”
The initiative would apply to anybody who crossed the border illegally, and to individuals who have lived within the nation for years, even a long time.
However even within the shadow of the Lyons memo, Murillo, again in Pomona, held on to a semblance of religion.
Excellent news, dangerous information, 48 hours
Lyons wrote in his memo that detention was completely inside ICE’s discretion, however he acknowledged a authorized problem was possible. For that purpose, he instructed ICE attorneys to proceed gathering proof to argue for detention earlier than an immigration choose, together with potential hazard to the neighborhood and flight danger.
It will come again to Zavala’s case.
On Tuesday, Murillo and her household have been getting ready for a reunion. Sure, they’d reunite with a visibly thinner Jose Luis Zavala, aged by weeks inside two federal detention facilities hundreds of miles away from one another.
Nonetheless, she and her household may style the second when Zavala would hug is 11-year-old once more. They have been counting the moments till he may see the indicators they’d made for his return.
“Bienvenido para de nuevo a casa”! Welcome again residence.
Just one factor wanted to occur: The Texas choose needed to log off on releasing him on the $5,000 bond. Solely then may he get on a airplane and go residence.
Murillo stayed again residence, however two of their eldest youngsters flew to El Paso. Their mission, their hope: Convey their father again.
However this wouldn’t be straightforward. They’d should endure a “redetermination” listening to, the place authorities attorneys would bear down, bringing the authorized may of a robust push to deport hundreds of thousands of immigrants, fueled by a president’s pledge to deport the “worst of the worst” and the numerous depictions of rapists, the gang members, the murderers.
Zavala felt the total brunt of which may as Division of Homeless Safety attorneys targeted on his previous. However it was a previous that been cleared. The DUI cost that the federal government keyed in on had lengthy been dismissed, Burga stated.
In response to Burga, the federal government didn’t point out the the memo in its arguments — “luckily,” he stated.
Burga stated the conviction has been dismissed.
Maria Murillo, spouse of ICE detainee Jose Luis Zavala has the paperwork for her husbands launched on $5,000 bond signed by a choose however the federal authorities appealed the bond and now he waits in an El Paso, TX detention middle as of Thursday, July 17, 2025. (Picture by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
The bond listening to occurred at 9 a.m. Tuesday. By 11 a.m., the choose had dominated in Zavala’s favor. He could be launched on $5,000 bond.
For an anxious household, it was a primary second of pure pleasure since earlier than June 18, the day when Zavala was picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers whereas he was on a job in La Mirada.
“Honestly, we just started celebrating and crying and hugging each other,” Murillo stated of the second the household obtained phrase. “Our first reaction was ‘thank God for this.”
Dangerous information Wednesday
The following day, the reverberations of the federal government’s expansive coverage seemed to be enjoying out, deflating Murillo’s hopes for her husband’s launch.
As Murillo’s daughter labored to finalize the discharge on the bottom in El Paso, she hit a glitch. She had to go surfing to pay the bond, a follow Zavala’s lawyer stated the federal government is making “everybody” do now. The request bounced again — denied.
In response to household and the lawyer, the federal government had “reserved” the case for attraction.
“In the same way we we so happy the day before, we were back to ‘why are they doing this to us,” Murillo stated. “We went back to square one, basically. What’s the point of having a bond, if you can’t get released.”
Due to the federal government’s intent to attraction, Zavala would keep in custody, at the very least for 30 extra days. In the event that they don’t attraction in that window, he’ll be launched in mid August. If the federal government does attraction, the case can be determined by the Board of Immigration Appeals, an administrative physique throughout the Division of Justice that interprets and applies immigration legal guidelines.
That course of may take weeks, months, even a yr, Burga stated.
‘Worst of the Worst’
Zavala’s case is one other that has shined a harsh mild on the administration’s “worst of the worst” pledge.
Murillo has at all times acknowledged that again within the early 2000s, her husband initially crossed illegally. She additionally acknowledged he as soon as had a DUI on his file, again in 2005. However whereas he was as soon as detained on a cost of DUI, that cost and case was dismissed by a courtroom, Gordo stated, including that he has no prison file.
However worst of the worst?
“Not everyone of the people detained are criminals,” Burga stated. “Mr. Zavala, his file was clear. It’s simply the easy proven fact that he appeared undocumented was the easy purpose he obtained detained.
“I think they are just trying to find different methods of finding their goal of mass deportation,” he stated.
However McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson, has referred to as the evaluation that ICE isn’t focusing on immigrants with a prison file “false” and stated that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has directed ICE “to target the worst of the worst — including gang members, murderers, and rapists.”
Maria Murillo, spouse of ICE detainee Jose Luis Zavala stands in her entrance door manner questioning when and if her husband can be launched to come back residence on bond to Pomona on Thursday, July 17, 2025. (Picture by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
She counted detainees with convictions, in addition to these with pending costs, as “criminal illegal aliens.”
The most recent ICE statistics present that as of June 29, there have been 57,861 folks detained by ICE, 41,495 — 71.7% of whom had no prison convictions. That features 14,318 folks with pending prison costs and 27,177 who’re topic to immigration enforcement, however don’t have any recognized prison convictions or pending prison costs.
Every detainee is assigned a menace stage by ICE on a scale of 1 to three, with one being the very best. These with out a prison file are labeled as having “no ICE threat level.” As of June 23, the most recent knowledge out there, 84% of individuals detained at 201 services nationwide weren’t given a menace stage. One other 7% had been graded as a stage 1 menace, 4% have been stage 2 and 5% have been stage 3.
“The government appears to be doing everything in its power to try to jail people under the authority of the immigration laws,” stated Ahilan Arulanantham, professor of follow and co-director of the Heart for Immigration Regulation and Coverage at UCLA College of Regulation.
However the rhetoric isn’t matching actuality, he stated.
“Citizens get DUIs and they then receive whatever punishment the criminal legal system deems appropriate,” Arulanantham stated. “Nobody is more dangerous because of where they were born. So the basic concept that we need to engage in immigration enforcement to make us safer is kind of at war with the way we know the criminal justice systems works at the most basic level.”
Arulanantham stated the vast majority of folks being arrested on this wave of enforcement operations are individuals who wouldn’t have a conviction, or who’ve minor convictions.
“Given that the Trump administration is saying over and over again that we’re going against the worst of the worst, touting alleged arrests of people with criminal histories in their past … it’s important to note they are not telling the truth about that,” he stated.
“That someone committed a DUI 20 years ago does not mean they have to be deported now to make us safe. That makes no sense.”
Maria Murillo, spouse of ICE detainee Jose Luis Zavala with the household truck she now makes use of together with her son to make cash mowing lawns in Pomona on Thursday, July 17, 2025. (Picture by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
‘Another waiting game’
Again in Pomona, Murillo reeled from the emotional rollercoaster of a month of begins and stops.
She has hope in her husband’s case and that the choose’s determination will stand. However it’s blended with concern that the federal government will discover one thing, some morsel of a blemish that may allow them to deport her husband.
“It’s like another waiting game,” she stated. “That’s a whole month to gather information… to look for stuff against him, I really doubt they are going to find. They know he has a possibility to win a case. I’m just scared. They could, out of nowhere, find something and put stuff on his case that could effect him.”
Her 11-year-old seems to be taking the brunt of it emotionally. Murillo stated she needed to take her to the emergency room a couple of week after the arrest for a situation that appeared to start out with anxiousness.
“I have to have the mentality to stay strong for them, but also for him,” she reminds herself, referring to her household.
They can speak to Zavala.
The theme of their conversations: “He’s gonna stay strong for us, and hopefully he will be released and we can bring him home.”
For now, the reunion should wait.
“We were ready to have a little gathering with the family,” she stated. “Make some food for him. My daughter had made big posters of “Welcome Back Daddy. We missed you!”
The Related Press contributed to this report.
Initially Printed: July 22, 2025 at 4:31 AM PDT
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