Heiner Perez Nolasco, an undocumented immigrant and activist, will be released from federal detention on Friday as he and a friend fight deportation, immigration rights advocates said.
Organizers from Cosecha Massachusetts, of which Nolasco is a member, joined his attorney Thursday at his bond hearing in immigration court in Boston’s John F. Kennedy Federal Building. He was granted a $3,000 bond.
“They weren’t driving or committing any crime. They were simply arrested for being passengers in a vehicle,” said the Rev. Gabriela Garcia of Christ United Methodist Church in Lawrence, who went to the bond hearing.
Nolasco and Nelson Fuentes-Lopez, both Guatemalan nationals, were detained on their way home from work on May 13, family members say. They were passengers in a car that was stopped on a New Hampshire highway. They said the driver, whose name they didn’t know, was speeding and driving without a license.
Nolasco and Fuentes-Lopez called their family members to tell them the officer had asked for their documents, said Abel Perez, Nolasco’s brother.
“We were working in New Hampshire, and my brother got out a day earlier than me,” Perez said in a Spanish-language interview. “Around midday called me to say a policeman stopped their car. He didn’t know the reason and he didn’t have any idea where they were going.”
Nolasco and Fuentes-Lopez were transferred into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and detained at the Strafford County Jail in Dover, New Hampshire. A Strafford County Jail official confirmed both are being held on immigration-related charges.
John Mohan, a spokesman for ICE Boston, said both men were stopped for a traffic violation and are detained pending criminal and immigration charges. Fuentes-Lopez was charged with illegal re-entry into the United States after being deported in July 2014, a felony.
Mohan did not say what criminal charges Perez Nolasco faces. He noted both are “unlawfully present citizens of Guatemala," an immigration violation. Family members and friends, however, say that both men were passengers in the car that was pulled over and have no criminal records.
A New Hampshire State Police spokeswoman said she was not immediately able to clarify what happened at the traffic stop. The agency is reviewing a public records request for the details.
Nolasco crossed the U.S.-Mexico border nearly a decade ago to join his older brother in Lawrence. Perez had made the trip 12 years ago and took root in the northern Massachusetts city. They came to the United States in hopes of funding their six siblings’ education back home, where their father runs a small farm.
“We dreamed to be able to give a better life to our family, to be able to give our siblings a better education and the opportunities we didn’t have,” Perez said.
They took up construction work, but they hoped to one day open an auto shop. Growing up, Perez worked in a mechanic shop to help his father with the bills. He learned how to diagnose engine troubles in Hondas, Toyotas and Mitsubishis and enjoyed repairing them.
Perez said his brother is the only family he has in the United States. Fuentes-Lopez, who left Guatemala after an attack at his father’s farm, has a one-month old daughter. His wife and his older sister are taking care of the baby, but Fuentes-Lopez was the primary breadwinner of the family.
Nolasco and Fuentes-Lopez are active in Cosecha Massachusetts, an activist group that is campaigning for legislation to extend driving privileges to undocumented immigrants.
Gov. Charlie Baker signed legislation in 2016 that created a standard Massachusetts licenses and REAL ID license that complies with federal regulations. He included an amendment that made undocumented immigrants ineligible for the standard license. While advocates have pushed for driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants, Baker has said he would veto such a measure.
Under the Obama administration, the Department of Homeland Security introduced the Priorities for Enforcement Program. That program meant federal immigration agents would prioritize felons, alleged gang members and other people deemed dangerous to the community.
One of President Donald Trump’s executive actions was one that removed priorities for enforcement, ordering ICE agents to target all immigrants without legal status for deportation.
In fiscal 2016, the federal government reported 240,225 deportations. That number dipped in fiscal 2017 to 226,119, which ICE attributed to historic lows in border crossings. The agency conducted 256,085 deportations in fiscal 2018, or 17 percent more, according to the agency’s report. ICE attributed that increase to bolstered ICE interior enforcement efforts.
ICE’s report states that the agency targets, arrests and deports immigrants who present a national security or public safety threat, as well as those who “otherwise undermine border control and the integrity of the U.S. immigration system.”
Trump, who ran on a promise to crack down on legal and illegal immigration, continues to argue for heightened immigration enforcement and border construction. In May, he applauded Customs and Border Patrol agents for rounding up more than 1,000 migrants who illegally crossed the border at El Paso.
The group includes 934 people traveling in family groups, 63 children traveling by themselves and 39 single adults, among others, NBC News reported. Most were from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
In Massachusetts, immigration advocates have spoken out against the broader enforcement policies. In Fuentes-Lopez and Nolasco’s cases, they argue the two were active members of the Lawrence community who were simply getting rides home from work.
“He is someone who likes to have those personal interactions, check in with people," said Amelia Gonzalez Pinal, an organizer at Cosecha Massachusetts who attended Nolasco’s bond hearing.
Perez said he wanted to speak out about his brother’s case so the public can understand what life is like for immigrants without legal status.
“It’s super important to share these stories so that everyone else who has documents can understand that if we are here, it is because we feel the need to come here and move our lives forward,” he said. “If we are here, it’s because we are working and filling the gaps in the workhouse that oftentimes this country doesn’t have.”