The North Port college grad is a ‘danger to the community’, judge rules.
By Ramon Lopez
Original Air Date: July 2, 2025
Host: Maria ‘Lulu’ Martinez is a danger to her community, a judge ruled, and that’s why she continues to be stuck in an ICE detention camp in Texas rather than return home to North Port. Ramon Lopez reports.
Maria Martinez
Ramon Lopez: On the upcoming Fourth of July, Maria Martinez will not be celebrating her country’s independence day, savoring her favorite dishes, lovingly cooked by her mother Lourdes.
The 22-year-old, who recently graduated with honors from a local college, will instead spend another lonely day isolated in her small living quarters at the El Valle Detention Facility in Raymondville, Texas.
Her crime? Making an illegal U-turn while driving her car in North Port, her hometown.
On Monday, Immigration Judge Delia Gonzalez, in the small town of Los Fresnos, near Brownsville, Texas ruled that Maria must return to the El Valle detention center. This, because she is a “danger to the community,” having been caught driving without a license.
Unclear is how long the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency will keep Maria on ice in Texas, as deportation is at hand for those in the United States who are undocumented.
Press conference at Trinity Church in June: “Bring her home!/Devuélvanla ahora!”
Maria came to the U.S. from Mexico when she was 12 years old with her family. Her legal troubles began on May 21 when she was pulled over by a North Port cop for the minor driving infraction. It was discovered that she had no driver’s license, since she was undocumented.
After giving Maria a ticket and citation to appear in traffic court, North Port police turned Maria over to ICE agents to face deportation. Since her detainment, she has moved from the Sarasota County Jail to federal detainment in Tampa, Miami and ultimately Raymondville, Texas.
Maria’s immigration case is being handled pro bono by Minnesota-based immigration lawyer Evangeline Dhawan Maloney.
On Monday, Maria appeared in person at the immigration court in Los Fresnos. Her lawyer in Minneapolis attended via video hookup.
Maria actually had two hearings that day. The first, a pro forma immigration hearing in the morning. A continuance was requested and granted for July 29.
The second was an afternoon bond hearing. The goal? Make bond and return to North Port to handle the traffic ticket, resolve her immigration problem, and be reunited with her family.
But, Evangeline Dhawan Maloney told WSLR News, things didn’t go so well for Maria at the 10-minute bond hearing. She said an appeal of the bond denial is among several options for Maria.
Evangeline Dhawan Maloney
Evangeline Dhawan Maloney: She could remain in detention and try to pursue an asylum case, or she could accept a deportation order and just say she would rather be returned back to Mexico. I don’t know exactly what she wants to do, but obviously I will do whatever she wants to do.
RL: The immigration lawyer relayed Maria’s and Lourdes’ reaction to the bond denial.
EDM: She didn’t really seem to express any emotion, but I’m sure she’s extremely disappointed. She did seem disappointed. And I know that her family is pretty devastated. We have informed them that she was denied bond. I thought, because I don’t speak Spanish. I had my paralegal reach out to her, and my paralegal did confirm that she was pretty emotional. She had gone out and, it sounds like, bought all of her daughter’s favorite foods. She wanted to cook for her when she got home because she’s been in detention, like, a month and a half at this point, so she was very emotional, hearing the news that her daughter was denied bond.
RL: The experienced immigration lawyer is disappointed and mystified by the judge’s ruling.
EDM: I’m very disappointed with the outcome. I think it was frankly ridiculous to hold a 22-year-old college graduate citing a danger to the community because she’s driven without a license. I think that’s pretty ridiculous. I think it’s emblematic of the broader—the inhumanity of the immigration system that we have in this country. Somebody who has been living here—brought here, essentially, as a child—been living here since she was 12 years old, pays taxes, works, helps support her family, graduated college, works two jobs and gets cited for driving the license because she can’t get a driver’s license in the state of Florida because she doesn’t have, a certain legal status. I think it’s a pretty terrible indictment of our immigration system.
RL: This is Ramon Lopez for WSLR News.
WSLR News aims to keep the local community informed with our 1/2 hour local news show, quarterly newspaper and social media feeds. The local news broadcast airs on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6pm.