DENVER, CO (February 9, 2021) - On Friday January 29, Border Patrol stopped Colorado mother and activist Hilda Martinez at one of their checkpoints near El Paso, Texas and took her into custody. Days later, a federal judge – recognizing her deep ties to community and family – approved her release on a personal recognizance bond. Community members were ready to receive Hilda and to take her to a safe place for the night before she would begin the journey back to Denver to be reunited with her four children. At 5pm an official told Hilda she was being released. Instead, for close to 24 hours, officials refused to disclose where they were holding her.
The American Friends Service Committee of Colorado, lawyer Shana Velez, and community members in Las Cruces began a search that took them from Dona Ana Detention Center to the Las Cruces Border Patrol Station and the ICE office in El Paso. For close to 24 hours it was unclear whether she had been released into the street, was still being held at Dona Ana, or was in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. The Dona Ana center eventually confirmed Border Patrol had placed the hold on Hilda.
"The conditions in Border Patrol, in the county jail were terrible,” said Hilda. “There was no access to medical care for me or other women. In Dona Ana (county) jail, there was a pregnant woman who needed more care, a diabetic who should have had medication three times a day and wasn’t receiving it. The food was so terrible, I didn’t eat for four days. There was no privacy to use the bathroom or to shower. No human being should be treated in this way. We were detained with people who were very aggressive, with mental health issues, eight people in a 15 by 15 cell. It was so dirty, and the water fountain was used by everyone. At the Border Patrol station, where I was held from February 4 to 5, I was denied the opportunity to speak to my lawyer and was denied medical attention for 24 hours. No one should be treated like this.”
Even Hilda’s attorneys were not able to locate her, despite repeated attempts. “Ms. Martinez Murillo was released from Border Patrol custody after ICE determined she should not be detained under President Biden’s enforcement priorities” explained Shana Velez, Hilda’s immigration lawyer. “A federal judge recognized Hilda’s deep roots in Colorado and her character by granting a personal recognizance bond. ICE also recognized her low risk to community and her ongoing immigration case and did not place a hold per the new Executive Orders from the Biden Administration. Despite clear enforcement priorities, Border Patrol essentially disappeared and denied Hilda access to her lawyer.”
Hilda is a well-known immigration activist in Colorado, where she is a leader of the #Not1More committee of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). “Her initial stop, subsequent incarceration and detention by Border Patrol are a waste of precious resources our communities need,” said Gabriela Flora, program director for AFSC in Colorado. “Her case is the rule, not the exception, to Border Patrol’s enforcement regime. We insist Congress reduce funding to enforcement by Border Patrol and invest these monies in the vitality of border communities.”
Hilda’s family and organizations from New Mexico and Colorado held a press conference Thursday to give updates on Hilda’s case and call on Congress and the Biden Administration to overhaul the harmful immigration policies that separated Hilda from her family. They issued the following statements after learning Hilda had been reunited finally with her family:
Jennifer Piper of AFSC: “We know our community is not safe in detention centers. ICE, Border Patrol, jails and prisons have failed to safeguard our detained community members, not only amidst the COVID-19 pandemic but long before as well. We call on Congress to use roll back funding to these unnecessary and inhumane carceral settings and to reform laws that disproportionately criminalize and jail people of color, immigrants and low-income people."
Ana Temu Otting of the American Civil Liberties Union: “Our community is still under attack. Colorado families, my family, still live in fear of being separated. Hilda continues to fight to reunite her family, she is a leader in the community, she is a Coloradan. Our work in immigrant rights is only just beginning. We need congress to act on a meaningful immigration bill that has a pathway to citizenship, reduces detention and doesn’t further militarize the border.”
Marcela Hernandez of Detention Watch Network: “CBP and ICE are agencies that regularly lie, actively hide information from the public and retaliate against anyone who speaks out. While we celebrate her release today, we unequivocally denounce the detention of Hilda and call on Congress to defund these agencies.”
BACKGROUND
Hilda Martinez Murillo has been the sole provider and breadwinner for her family since her husband Ivan was deported last year. She is a strong and compassionate community leader with the American Friends Service Committee in Colorado. Hilda is a quiet person in her daily life, but outspoken and fearless in the face of injustice. When her husband was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and held for eight months at the GEO facility in Aurora, Colo., Hilda worked tirelessly to advocate for his release. The family helped to expose the lack of access to medical care and mishandling of contagious diseases in detention.
At the beginning of the pandemic, she led #FreeThemAll calls to action at detention centers and jails in Colorado. Hilda was also featured in the ACLU’s groundbreaking documentary The Facility about the GEO for-profit immigration detention facility in Aurora, CO. Hilda has testified in favor of bills at the state capitol and met with many Colorado congresspeople to advocate for just and humane immigration reform and the elimination of immigration detention centers. Most recently she advocated for the new congress to finally tackle an overhaul of our immigration policies, participating in two public direct actions in January alone.
On January 29 she was driving near El Paso, where she encountered a Border Patrol checkpoint. Her car was stopped, she was asked to get out of the car and arrested. She did not know why she was arrested or understand what was happening. She was taken by Border Patrol to the Dona Ana County Detention Center, a jail in New Mexico. She was held there until February 4.
Hilda had her bond hearing on the morning of February 4, where she was granted a personal recognizance bond by a federal magistrate. Community members were waiting outside the jail for her to be released. They received a call saying a hold had been placed on her, but there was no information about which agency placed the hold.
At 5pm Hilda was picked up by Border Patrol inside the jail and taken away. She was allowed to make one phone call at 8pm but did not know who she was being detained by. Hilda began to have a very bad headache and chest pain and began asking for medical care. She was denied any medication for hours.
On the morning of February 5, advocates and lawyers began calling the jail, Border Patrol and ICE searching for Hilda. All agencies denied that they had Hilda in custody for many hours. ICE officials told Hilda’s lawyer that Hilda is not a priority for detention and that they did not place a hold on her. Finally, a supervisor at the Dona Ana Detention Facility confirmed that the hold had been placed by Border Patrol and that they had taken Hilda. The jail did not know where they had taken her.
Advocates and lawyers called Border Patrol and they continued to insist they did not have Hilda in custody until approximately 3:30 pm on February 5. She was not able to talk with her lawyer at all during her time in Border Patrol custody. Once advocates confirmed Hilda was in custody, Border Patrol finally moved her to a hospital for medical care. She was not released from Border Patrol custody until 7:45pm when their agents left the hospital.
A community member stayed with Hilda at the hospital until she was discharged. Hilda stayed the night with that community member and began her journey back to Colorado on February 6. She was finally reunited with her four children on Sunday, February 7 at 3am.
###
The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization that promotes lasting peace with justice, as a practical expression of faith in action. Drawing on continuing spiritual insights and working with people of many backgrounds, we nurture the seeds of change and respect for human life that transform social systems.