An extended Honduran family with roots in Portland for over two decades, including four US citizen children, their mother, father, and grandmother, has been detained by US immigration and border authorities for nearly two weeks, according to family members, friends, their lawyer, and U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter.
Dexter, who held a press conference in Washington state on Friday to highlight the case, stated that the mother and children were effectively “kidnapped” by US border authorities and have not been able to speak with legal representation since the woman’s arrest at the US-Canada border.
According to US Customs and Border Protection standards, people should not be detained in holding facilities for more than 72 hours.
According to an agency spokesperson, the family was arrested because the mother was “attempting to smuggle illegal aliens into the United States on June 28,” a claim denied by the woman’s sister in published reports.
“She had her children present during the smuggling attempt and requested that they remain with her during detention,” the federal spokesperson added, declining to say when the woman would be charged with a crime.
Dexter said the woman and her children, who include 9-year-old triplets and a 7-year-old, have been held at a Customs and Border Protection facility in Ferndale, Washington, for nearly two weeks.
The Portland Democrat learned about the family’s case from a friend on Monday and found them on Thursday. She was able to visit the facility and see the family but was not permitted to speak with them, she stated.
“This is more than just a legal line that was crossed. It is a line of defense against the kinds of authoritarian abuses we are now witnessing,” Dexter said of activities taking place under President Trump’s administration.
“Trump said he would go after the worst of the worst, but what his immigration machine is doing instead is abducting Oregonians without cause.”
Dexter stated that she will not stop fighting until the family is released and reunited with their community.
The woman was not publicly identified during the news conference, but The Oregonian/OregonLive learned that she is a childcare service provider in Portland, a singer with a recorded album, and a worship leader at a nearby Christian church.
The family was apprehended at Peace Arch Historical State Park in Blaine, Washington. Washington State Parks owns the park’s southern half, while British Columbia Parks owns the northern half.
Americans and Canadians have previously been able to mix anywhere in the park, but in May 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Protection imposed some restrictions on Canadians, citing an increase in illegal border crossings, according to news reports and a video by federal officials. Canadians can now only get as far as the restrooms on the US side.
The mother and four children arrived at the park from Oregon, accompanied by their grandmother, who was on a travel visa from Honduras, according to Jill Nedved, the family’s lawyer. They met the mother’s sister, a Canadian resident, and her Canadian-born children at the park.
Nedved of Gonzales, Gonzales & Gonzales Immigration Law Offices in Seattle said the mother has not been charged with a crime.
According to Nedved, the grandmother was also arrested at the park but has since been transferred to an immigration detention center in Tacoma.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested the woman’s husband a few days later in front of the family’s Portland home and is currently detained in Tacoma, according to Nedved.
Without the individuals’ date of birth and a so-called A-number, David Yost, a spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said he couldn’t confirm whether they were still detained at the Tacoma immigration detention center or why they were.
The A-number may be assigned to individuals without legal status or those seeking immigration benefits in order to track their immigration records and legal status.
In a report aired earlier this week by Spanish-language news station Noticias Noroeste, the woman’s sister denied the smuggling accusation, claiming it was simply a family reunion.
Flor Solis told the station that she and her Canadian citizen children had met with her sister, her sister’s children, and the grandmother at the park for a family reunion. Solis’ mother had traveled to the United States from Honduras with her husband on a tourist visa, according to Solis. He remained in Portland and was not detained.
Solis stated that her sister had applied for a U-visa, a type of visa that provides temporary legal status to non-citizens who have been victims or witnesses to certain crimes in the United States.
Solis claimed that US border patrol agents also arrested her and her children, only to release them a few days later. Solis stated that she has been barred from entering the United States for five years, but she does not understand why.
According to media reports across the country, tourists have been detained at the border this year and held for days or weeks before being released.
According to Vanessa Gutierrez, deputy director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, it has not always been common for customs and border agents to detain people without charges, but it is becoming more common.
She stated that a man was recently detained at Sea-Tac International Airport for approximately four days. News reports have also surfaced of several other US citizens being questioned at airports, with some even being asked to show their social media and bank accounts.
Gutierrez stated that if someone is seeking to enter the United States, they do not have the right to an attorney; however, in other cases, it is dependent on the individual circumstances. As for the Portland family, she said it’s difficult to say without more details.
“With the government these days, it’s hard to know how ethical they are being, especially with U.S. citizens involved,” she told me. “That’s very concerning.”
Mimi Lettunich, a 20-year friend of the Portland family, described them as hard workers who attend church and own a home and a business. This is not the first time the family has met at the park on the US-Canadian border, she explained.
“They’re unbelievable people,” Lettunich said. “They don’t say bad words and don’t drink… They are upstanding citizens.
The mother is an accomplished singer and worship director at a local Christian church. The family participates in community service projects. The children attend Christian schools and recently won a music competition.
Lettunich, who established a GoFundMe account for the family, said she received a text from the detained mother on Tuesday, indicating she was unaware she had legal representation: “Mimi, I need an attorney. “They want to send us to Honduras.”
Dexter stated that the family is treated humanely at the Ferndale facility, despite being housed in a small cell with a cement floor. She said they have four-inch-thick mats and linens, as well as snacks, fresh fruit, toiletries, and children’s videos.
Dexter said they are the only family detained at the facility.
Little ones “should be spending their summer riding bikes, going to the pool, going to camp and enjoying their childhood,” Dexter told me. “Instead, they have spent almost two weeks locked in a detention facility, cut off from the outside world, access to legal counsel, and disappeared by their own government.”
