Kevin Zaldaña Ramírez, a 20-year-old Salvadoran immigrant whose lawyer says he was illegally detained, was released from immigrant detention on bond Thursday.
Zaldaña Ramírez was taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody Feb. 25 after immigration agents came to the construction site where he was working.
He provided his Social Security number and explained that he has a status known as Special Immigrant Juvenile status and a valid work permit, but they detained him anyway.
ICE said that Zaldaña Ramirez was encountered during an operation with the Texas Department of Public Safety targeting transnational gang members. Zaldaña Ramírez disputed being involved in any gang activity.
Houston immigrant rights organization FIEL said at the press conference that the case illustrates how President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown extends far beyond the criminals he claims to be targeting.
“Unlike the rhetoric that the Trump administration has used, that they’re going after hardened criminals, they’re going after bad people, Kevin is a person who was just out and about doing the right thing, providing for his family and for his mother,” said FIEL executive director Cesar Espinosa.
Zaldaña Ramírez was granted bond on Tuesday, but his family had no way to pay it since they rely on his income. Luckily, Carlos Eduardo Espina, a social media influencer for the Latino community in Texas and beyond, heard about the case and coordinated through FIEL’s volunteer network to pay the $3,000 bond.
“I went ahead and collaborated with that amount to get Kevin out because I think what happened to him is a real injustice,” Espina said. “Just looking at him, we can hear him speak, you’ll realize he’s not a threat to the community. He’s not a threat to anyone.”
ICE said that Zaldaña-Ramirez was considered an enforcement priority under their current guidelines.
“Zaldaña-Ramirez’ authorization to work in the U.S. does not confer him with any form of lawful status in the U.S. and does not prevent ICE from detaining or placing him into immigration proceedings.”
Espinosa said that ICE’s statement seemed to be backtracking to justify the detention and that the gang allegations prompted questions of how authorities are determining gang affiliation.
“It goes back to the whole notion of the administration, that is playing with what is criminal, what is not,” Espinosa said. “And they keep setting the bar higher and moving the bar further away um and trying to be creative as to what is a criminal or not.”
Getting out
Zaldaña Ramírez’s mom, Yolanda Ramirez, said she was overcome by happiness and shouted thanks to God alone in her apartment when she found out her son had been granted bond.
“It was a joy, a delight,” Yolanda said.
At the press conference, she thanked everyone who supported her son’s release, including Espina and a sponsor who asked to remain anonymous. She called for unity against detentions of hard-working immigrants like her son, who is not the only one, she said.
“There are many innocent, handworking people who are detained and they’ve deported them. To me, that’s unfair,” Yolanda said.
Thinking about his mom, who is visually impaired and relies on him financially, made the experience even more frustrating for Zaldaña Ramírez.
“There were nights and days of panic, because I didn’t know what was happening with me at the moment,” said who stood with his hand on his mom’s shoulder during the press conference Friday. “It was frustration and sadness.”
‘My son is no gang member’
It’s still unclear why Zaldaña Ramírez, who has no criminal record, was detained despite having a legal status. ICE did not respond to a request for comment about this specific case, but has previously said its operations work to keep communities safe.
When the immigration officials arrived at Zaldaña Ramírez’s workplace questioned whether he had gang status. Zaldaña Ramírez told them that he had no gang ties or criminal record. To avoid gang recruitment, Zaldaña Ramírez and his mother and brother fled gang threats in El Salvador in 2018. Still, the official lifted his shirt to check for tattoos.
“When he asked for my information, I told him I was Salvadoran, and he changed his attitude,” Zaldaña Ramírez said.
Espinosa of FIEL called this worrying, especially given the recent rhetoric conflating immigrants with criminals. Yolanda also expressed concern about this line of questioning. “My son is no gang member,” she said.
During his first administration, Trump often pointed to the transnational Salvadoran gang MS-13, which began in Los Angeles, as allegedly fueling violence and crime and used gang affiliation to justify the detention and deportation of Salvadorans. Instead, many innocent Salvadoran youth were targeted.
Now, Trump has focused on Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. He has alleged gang ties when sending Venezuelans to Guantanamo or El Salvador. But families have disputed that their detained relatives are gang members.
Now that he has been released, Zaldaña Ramírez will continue the process of seeking his green card through his special juvenile status. He wants to get back to work so he can support his mom, he said.
“My mom always taught me to never give up,” Zaldaña Ramírez said. “To be a good man, a working man.”
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