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3 detained in Allston Car Wash immigration raid released on bond, lawyer says
An attorney for the three car wash workers said they were “extremely exhausted and traumatized.”
Wednesday, Nov. 19 update: Three of the workers detained during the Nov. 4 Allston Car Wash immigration raid have been released on bond following delays with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, their attorney said.
Yuli Magali Mendez Luarca, Jose Enriquez Sagastume, and Dairo Preciado were all granted bond in immigration court Monday.
“They’re all out,” attorney Todd Pomerleau told Boston.com via text message Tuesday night, adding that the trio was “extremely exhausted and traumatized” but en route to their families.
Six more immigrant car wash employees remain detained.
Original story:
Even after posting bond, three of the nine workers detained in last week’s Allston Car Wash immigration raid were still waiting to be released from ICE custody Tuesday, according to their lawyer.
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Attorney Todd Pomerleau told Boston.com the three were granted bond Monday and posted it, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement still didn’t release them. The Boston Globe identified the workers as Yuli Magali Mendez Luarca, 35, Jose Enriquez Sagastume, 20, and Dairo Preciado, 67.
Previously:
ICE “routinely delays,” Pomerleau said via text message Tuesday. “They will never admit why.”
He described an administrative process entangled in bureaucratic red tape, shifting goal posts, and procedural hold-ups. Pomerleau said some of the other car wash workers have bond hearings scheduled for Thursday, and cases involving the remaining employees are pending.
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“What we have done with success recently is file a motion for immediate release and get a judge to issue an order to let them out right away and the released person has till the next business day to finish all the bond paperwork at ICE,” Pomerleau explained. “In other words, our client’s liberty shouldn’t be trumped by administrative bureaucracy and inefficiency.”
Boston.com has reached out to ICE for comment.
Agents detained nine car wash employees Nov. 4, allegedly without giving them the opportunity to present their work authorization documents. Zac Segal, the president of the Boston University College Republicans, later took credit for summoning federal officials and wrote on social media that he’d been “calling ICE for months on end.”
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin disputed Segal’s claim, even as the agency feted Segal as a “patriot” online.
“The operation was highly targeted and relied on law enforcement intelligence—not a silly rumor,” she said in a statement.
According to McLaughlin, among the nine people detained was one immigrant who “chose to commit a felony by illegally re-entering the U.S.”
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Allston Car Wash defended its staff in a statement Friday.
“Our employees are good, hardworking individuals who come to work each day to provide for themselves and their families,” the business wrote on Facebook. “We take pride in creating a workplace where people are treated with dignity and respect. Many employees have worked with us for years and in some cases decades.”
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