BERKELEY — Two weeks after he was granted reprieve in his ongoing efforts to combat deportation, a San Jose tattoo artist was charged in what police name a “series” of tried automobile thefts.
Guillermo Medina Reyes, 31, was charged with two counts of carjacking, two counts of car theft and one depend of grand theft, authorities stated. However after being booked he was given a psychological well being analysis, and has nonetheless not been transferred to jail, in response to public information and media studies.
For Reyes, it’s the second time he’s been hit with a felony case within the span of a month. On July 2, he was charged with vandalism in Santa Clara County for allegedly kicking down an condo door final Could. In that incident, Reyes stated he was experiencing a psychological well being disaster and believed somebody he knew was trapped inside.
Reyes is a group activist and San Jose-based tattoo artist whose years-long efforts to combat pending deportation to Mexico have made headlines. He was dropped at the U.S. when he was 6 years outdated. Two weeks in the past, a choose barred ICE from detaining him for deportation till a minimum of after a court docket listening to.
Now, Reyes faces the prospect of jail in addition to eventual deportation. Berkeley police say that on July 27, they recognized him because the suspect in a criminal offense spree that began when a person punched a passenger window on a automobile on the 1700 block of San Pablo Avenue and tried to open the door.
Different callers reported comparable incidents within the space, police stated. Reyes was detained, booked for a “medical evaluation,” then formally charged by the Alameda County District Legal professional on Wednesday.
Reyes has been combating deportation for years, nicely earlier than the Trump Administration ramped up anti-immigration enforcement. As a teen, after serving a youth incarceration sentence for tried homicide, Reyes was positioned in immigration detention for 15 months. In 2023, an immigration choose ordered his launch after figuring out he wasn’t a risk or flight danger and that ICE couldn’t show that they might promptly deport him.
After the Could vandalism arrest, ICE tried to detain him as soon as once more. He was launched, once more, however outfitted with a GPS monitoring machine on his ankle.
The choose who granted Reyes reprieve additionally set a deadline of July 29 for attorneys on either side of the case to submit a timeline for the subsequent proceedings in in federal court docket. That doc was filed on high, however sealed by court docket order, information present.
Jia H. Hung contributed reporting
Initially Revealed: July 31, 2025 at 2:47 PM PDT
