April 25, 2019 500 AM
FAR WEST TEXAS – The three El Salvardoran immigrants picked up by Marfa and Jeff Davis County Attorney Teresa Todd have all been turned over to immigration custody, after Public Defender Chris Carlin demanded their release from US Marshal custody. The brothers, Carlos and Francisco Orellana-Lazo had previously been held by the US Marshals, under an admonishment that they might be witnesses in a potential case that had not been disclosed.
The siblings fled Central America after violence grew in their community. Many of the brothers’ friends were victims of cartel violence, and a local gang had taken interest in their younger sister, Esmeralda, who only just turned eighteen. They left their lives as bakers in a local pandería in hopes of reaching the United States for asylum. When they arrived, they struggled across the desert, and the sister became dangerously ill, ultimately languishing on the side of Highway 17, north of Marfa, before Todd pulled over to offer help.
It was uncertain whether the federal government would bring charges against Todd for picking up illegal immigrants. The brothers were held as witnesses, but their detention wasn’t connected to a specific case, and there were no charges announced against Todd. Instead, the two young men waited through a 45-day window, where the government is allowed to hold them and collect depositions from them. The case never materialized, and neither brother was ever deposed. Their lawyer, Public Defender Chris Carlin, filed a motion for their release last Thursday, as the 45-day limit expired, and the brothers still sat jailed in Marshal custody.
In his motion, Carlin suggested that the government might have chosen not to collect statements from the brothers if their statements wouldn’t be useful in building a case against Todd. With the brothers released, Carlin says, “The chances of her being prosecuted are very slim,” but adds that there is no certainty.
Carlin says the two men signed documents when they were initially apprehended. He has not seen them, but if they were served with expedited removal papers, they may have unknowingly agreed to be deported without consideration. In Marshal custody, the three had a right to an attorney, but once moved to immigration custody, the three siblings lost that right. They are now on their own.
According to ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System, Esmeralda, Carlos, and Francisco are all currently being held at the West Texas Detention Facility in Sierra Blanca. There, they await a chance at asylum, or deportation to El Salvador—a return to the violence that took their friends’ lives, and a return to the coercion Esmeralda faced.
