The North Port college grad agrees to be deported to Mexico; family to follow.
By Ramon Lopez
Original Air Date: July 30, 2025
Host: We reported about the odyssey of Maria ‘Lulu’ Martinez. After a wrong U-turn in her hometown of North Port, the recent college graduate ended up in ICE detention in Texas. After weeks there, she decided to self-deport and is now in Mexico. Ramon Lopez reports.
Ramon Lopez: For the past six weeks, WSLR News has been reporting on the fate of 22-year-old Maria Martinez, a North Port resident. Just recently graduated from a local college with honors, she was looking forward to a bright and productive future in the working world.
Maria Martinez
But she was detained by a North Port cop for making an illegal U-turn. He found out she did not have a driver’s license and was an undocumented immigrant.
She was turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents and detained in several Florida jails and ICE detention centers in both Florida and Texas.
Protesters and Martinez family members and friends say it is inhumane and a violation of human rights to separate families. They said Maria should be immediately bonded out of detention and get to plead her case in court.
She appeared before an immigration court near Brownsville, Texas but was denied bond because she was considered a “threat to society” and returned to the El Valle Detention Facility in Raymondville, Texas, imprisoned with 135 other woman detainees.
Her first choice was to appeal the bond denial, remaining at the detention camp for many more months, in hopes of being released and returning to her home in North Port to resolve her immigration dilemma.
Her other choice was to voluntarily self-deport to Mexico with ICE providing a one-way ticket out the country.
Maria’s attorney told WSLR News she seriously doubted Maria would, under her particular circumstances, win her freedom and would have eventually been deported to Mexico anyway.
Faced with a Catch-22 scenario—”you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t”—Maria, who is called Lulu by family and friends, elected to take self-deportation to Mexico to escape imprisonment.
Last Thursday, Maria was driven across the U.S.-Mexico border and deposited at a shelter by ICE agents. The next afternoon, Mexican police officers took her to a local airport for a flight to Mexico City. Grandparents live just outside the capital of Mexico.
Maria Martinez
On Sunday, a festive celebration was held for Maria. Her immediate family in Florida could not be there to celebrate her release.
Lourdes, Maria’s mother, and the rest of the family in North Port have spoken to Maria by phone about her ordeal. Lourdes told a supporter that Maria is relieved to be free but heartbroken about not being home in Florida.
But Maria said she is ready to rebuild her life and start over in Mexico if need be. And, angry over Maria’s treatment, her family has decided to reunite with Maria in Mexico and never return to the United States.
Maria’s story doesn’t end here, since her unexpected journey has only just begun—one she did not see coming when she happily accepted her college diploma just a few months ago.
This is Ramon Lopez for WSLR News.
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