Family seeks return from Mexico of longtime Beaverton handyman arrested by feds as he left job site
More than 100 people gathered Friday in Beaverton to demand the return to the U.S. of a local handyman arrested last week by federal agents as he left his job site.
The family of Paulino Martin San Pedro talked to him briefly at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Tacoma within a day of his arrest but then had no contact with him for two days as they hired a lawyer, said his son, Eric Martin.
They soon learned he was in Mexico, Martin said.
Friends and family believe federal officials intimidated him into agreeing to leave the U.S., Martin said.
“They interrogated him to sign paperwork … to self-deport,” he said.
Martin San Pedro, 53, had lived in the U.S. for more than 30 years as an undocumented immigrant, said his son, who attended Beaverton’s Southridge High School and spoke at the rally held there.
Martin San Pedro had just left a job where he replaced some windows on Nov. 18 when federal officers approached his car in two vehicles from the front and back on Allen Boulevard, Martin said.
His mother was in the car and called Martin in tears to report the arrest, he said.
Martin San Pedro’s mother and sister live in Mexico and can help him, but he deserves due process, said Martin, 31, who was born in the U.S.
No court issued an order for his father’s deportation, Martin said. The family is working with a lawyer to find a way for him to return, he said, but declined to say if his father had a pending immigration case such as an asylum request.
Martin San Pedro pleaded not guilty in 1990 to misusing an identification card and did community service for a lesser charge, court records indicate. He had a speeding ticket and was cited for not having the proper safety gear in his truck in 2004, the records show.
The Trump administration has sharply increased immigration enforcement in Oregon since October. Last month alone in the Portland area, federal authorities arrested more than 560 people.
Friday’s rally brought together residents and local elected officials who carried signs decrying the immigration crackdown and calling for Martin San Pedro’s return.
Beaverton City Council member Nadia Hasan told attendees that every resident arrested by federal agents is a loss felt by the whole community.
“Paulino’s case is one of the many horrors of how fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters have been unjustly taken away from us,” Hasan said.