Oregon single mother survived years of abuse, then ICE arrested her on her way to work

A Congress member from Oregon and an immigration attorney are pushing for the release of a victim of domestic violence and single mother who has been detained in Tacoma since last summer when federal agents arrested her and others on their way to pick berries.

Marta Escalante Perez, 29, mother of a 5-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl, was among the first group of farmworkers detained in Oregon by immigration authorities under the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.

They were stopped in early August near Woodburn on their way to work. More than 2,100 people have been arrested in Oregon since President Donald Trump took office.

Escalante Perez, who is Indigenous Mam from Guatemala, came to the U.S. in 2015 at age 18 to escape violence, including gang rapes at the age of 14, according to her immigration attorney and court records. She was apprehended at the border but released, and an immigration judge eventually terminated deportation proceedings against her.

But once in the U.S., she suffered abuse at the hands of her partner at the time. He was convicted in 2022 and 2024 of crimes against Escalante Perez and her daughter, court records show. Escalante Perez has no criminal record in Oregon, a search in court records show.

After Escalate Perez was arrested last year, her lawyer, Rachel Game, helped her apply for asylum and then for a U visa, which allows crime victims to remain legally in the country.

Despite her pending visa application and request for release, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities continue to hold Escalante Perez at the regional detention center in Tacoma. Her brother is taking care of her children in the meantime.

U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Oregon, said she’s working with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, commonly known as USCIS, to expedite Escalante Perez’s case.

“Under any sane administration, including previous ones, ICE would have already released her and anyone else who was on the path toward receiving their U-Visa,” Salinas said in a statement. “Sadly, this is not a sane administration. Instead, ICE is keeping her from her children and traumatizing their family.”

Escalante Perez originally faced an inadmissible entry charge in 2015 but was released on her own recognizance. In January 2023, an immigration judge terminated the case against her without prejudice, records show, meaning she no longer faced the immediate threat of deportation but that the government could file another case against her.

Immigration judges in separate October hearings denied Escalante Perez’s release on bond and her request for asylum – and then ordered her deportation, according to Game and court records. Escalante Perez is appealing the deportation, records show.

In late November, a federal judge in Oregon ruled in a habeas corpus filing that Escalante Perez and three other people arrested with her should have a new bond hearing within 14 days of his order. A habeas corpus is a line of legal defense to challenge unlawful detentions.

On Dec. 9, an immigration judge again denied her release on bond, though an immigration document shows that Citizenship and Immigration Services received her U visa application on Dec. 4 and waived the fee.

“Right now, ICE is denying Marta bond because they argue she is a flight risk,” Salinas said.

Both Salinas and Game said the federal government bases that claim on an unanswered call and letter to Escalante Perez in 2020.

“At that time, Marta was pregnant and had medical complications. She was still living with her abuser and it was the pandemic,” Salinas said.

Salinas hasn’t been able to learn more about Escalate Perez’s circumstances at the time because ICE has refused to release the information, she said.

Game said the government didn’t try to contact Escalante Perez’s immigration lawyer in 2020 so it’s not clear what officials wanted.

Escalante Perez never missed check-in meetings with ICE officials in Eugene or appearances at Portland Immigration Court before her case was terminated in 2023, including during the period when ICE officials said she didn’t return the call and letter, Game said.

Woodburn police reports and court records show that Escalante Perez’s ex-partner was convicted in 2022 of coercion, fourth-degree assault and first-degree burglary and ordered not to have contact with Escalante Perez and her family. In 2024, he was convicted of two counts of harassment.

In the most recent case, Escalante Perez’s daughter told police that her stepfather “slapped” her when she tried to get between him and her mother during an argument. The girl also told police that her mother “had a bruise on her face” after her stepfather slapped her, police records show.

Escalante Perez recently said in Spanish during an interview from the Tacoma detention center that she wants her children to continue to have hope that she will come home to them.

“God listens to prayers,” she said in Spanish she has told them. And they have said in return: “We are praying with you.”

“I have to be back with my children,” she said, in tears.