Friends and activists gathered Thursday outside the Boyle Heights home of a 22-year-old woman who was arrested by immigration authorities in what her supporters contend was an act of retaliation for her outspoken support of her mother, who was detained for possible deportation earlier this year.
Claudia Rueda, a student at Cal State Los Angeles, was arrested by Customs and Border Patrol agents May 19 when she walked outside her family’s house to move a car.
CBP officials, in a statement to the Los Angeles Times, said the next day Rueda was one of seven people detained as part of a probe into a “cross-border narcotics smuggling operation,” but all were arrested for alleged immigration violations.
Rueda’s supporters, however, believe she was targeted because of her activism.
“We understand as students that activism is a difficult thing to carry on,” fellow CSULA student Rosemary Giron said. “But we understand that it is our duty to fight.”
Activists contend that Rueda’s arrest was carried out in retaliation for her criticism of CBP following the April arrest of her mother, Teresa Vidal-Jaime, 54. Vidal-Jaime was detained as part of a multi-agency drug raid at her home that resulted in the arrest of her husband, Hugo Rueda, authorities said.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials, who took part in that raid, said Vidal-Jaime was questioned but was not arrested as part of the narcotics investigation. Customs and Border Patrol agents, who were also involved in the raid, later detained Vidal-Jaime after determining she was in the country illegally.
Her arrest led to a series of protests, including one accusing the sheriff’s department of colluding with federal immigration authorities — something the sheriff’s department vehemently denied, saying they had no involvement with Vidal-Jaime’s arrest.
But Rueda was outspoken in her criticism of her mother’s arrest.
“Despite being told she would not be detained as long she cooperated, my mother was apprehended during an illegally conducted raid at my apartment,” Rueda said at the time. She said authorities “used intimidation tactics to enter the home,” and her mother gave law enforcement access to her home “out of fear of retaliation.”
Vidal-Jamie was eventually released.
Rueda is in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which stressed it was not involved in her arrest. According to the agency, however, “Department of Homeland Security databases indicate Ms. Rueda currently has no legal authorization to be in the United States. Accordingly, she has been placed in removal proceedings before the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review.
It will now be up to an immigration judge with EOIR to determine whether Ms. Rueda has a legal basis to remain in the U.S. or will be removed,” according to ICE.
Rueda’s supporters said that hearing has been set for June 19.
Activists said Rueda has no criminal record and was brought to the United States at age 4, and she is eligible to remain in the country under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that protects from deportation people who were brought to the country illegally as children.
–City News Service