Meanwhile, traffic charges at home pile up for Maria ‘Lulu’ Martinez.
By Ramon Lopez
Original Air Date: June 27, 2025
Host: Lulu Martinez made a wrong U-turn in her hometown of North Port and ended up in an ICE detention camp in Texas. Meanwhile, charges over her traffic violation are piling up here at home. Our reporter Ramon Lopez caught up with her lawyer, as Lulu will be facing two court hearings next week.
Ramon Lopez: Twenty-two-year-old Maria Martinez of Sarasota County prays that the First of July 2025 will be her Independence Day, for on that Tuesday, the honor student who just graduated from the State College of Florida will face not one but two immigration judges at a federal courthouse in Los Fresnos, a small town of 8,000 people near Brownsville, Texas.
Held at the El Valle Detention Facility in Raymondville, Texas for weeks now, Maria is scheduled to go before Immigration Judge Frank Pimentel in the morning for a so-called Master Hearing to hopefully begin the long and arduous process of becoming an American citizen. It’s like an arraignment to get her immigration case rolling. This would allow her to stay in the United States, her home since she was twelve years old. Maria and other family members live in North Port.
Maria Martinez
Maria will that afternoon stand before Immigration Judge Delia Gonzalez for a bond hearing. Gonzalez will decide whether the undocumented immigrant will be released from the El Valle Detention Facility and allowed to go home.
On the other hand, the judge could rule that Maria should remain at the detention center for who knows how long and each day worry that she will be put on a plane bound for Mexico.
It’s currently unclear whether Maria will actually go to Los Fresnos for the two critical judicial hearings. Her pro bono attorney, Evangeline Dhawan-Maloney, with a large law firm in Minneapolis, and who specializes in immigration law, will be representing Maria via Webex video from her office.
Maria’s sad and shocking involvement with local law enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, began with U.S. President Donald Trump’s mandate for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
As part of his immigration dragnet, the country has seen large-scale arrests in which asylum-seekers appearing at routine court hearings have been arrested outside courtrooms.
In many cases, a judge will grant a government lawyer’s request to dismiss deportation proceedings, at which time ICE officers will then arrest the people and place them on “expedited removal,” a fast track to deportation.
Maria’s issue began last month when she got pulled over by a police officer for making an illegal U-turn, a minor traffic violation. North Port Police discovered she was driving without a license and contacted ICE agents because she is undocumented. Since her detention, she has been moved from the Sarasota County Jail, to Tampa, the Krome detention center in Miami and now to the El Valle holding facility.
Through an interpreter, Lourdes Martinez, Maria’s mother, is pleading for mercy for Maria. And she says police officers tricked and mistreated her daughter.
Lourdes Martinez: I know that maybe this is not the right way to come into this country, but we all have made mistakes—have made errors in the past. But I believe that we all deserve an opportunity.
She was mistreated, especially in Sarasota. She was treated with racism. The agents told her that her mother was waiting for her—that her mother was going to pay a bond for her and that she was going to come out, but when she came out, it was actually a trick. They tricked her, and they were just waiting for her there to detain her. It was a trick. They tricked her.
RL: There are reports about deplorable conditions at some of the nation’s immigration detention facilities. WSLR News was unable to speak by phone with Maria to check on her life behind bars. She has limited use of a phone at the Texas detention site to speak to her lawyer and family members.
But Lourdes Martinez told immigrant advocates that Maria is eating well enough, is able to take showers and is making the best of it. Maria did say living conditions are worse for male detainees there.
We hear from Evangeline Dhawan-Maloney, Maria’s lawyer, who has yet to meet face-to-face with her client.
Evangeline Dhawan-Maloney: She seems to be doing fine. I think she’s actually being treated fairly. It sounds like El Valle Detention Center might be a little bit better than some of the other detention centers.
I think she is under a lot of stress. This is somebody that’s been in the United States since they were twelve years old and were essentially taken by ICE after being picked up for driving without a license.
RL: Dhawan-Maloney will say Maria is undocumented and then come up with the next step forward.
EDM: She may have an asylum case or other forms of immigration relief, but we haven’t fully identified what we’re going to be filing.
RL: The immigration lawyer doesn’t believe Maria will be deported to Mexico and thinks Maria will make bond. But an appeal is provided if bond is denied.
EDM: We’re hoping that Maria’s released on bond. She can be reunited with her family. She’s a college graduate. She has a full-time job. She is helping her parents. This is not somebody that belongs in immigration detention.
RL: Meanwhile, WSLR News has learned that, should Maria Martinez get back to Sarasota, she faces an additional unexpected legal hurdle.
Her U-turn violation was recently heard in Sarasota traffic court. But, obviously, she wasn’t able to make the court hearing. She was then cited for contempt of court and a warrant was issued for her arrest.
Dhawan-Maloney wonders what the warrant is all about. She has advised Maria to get a local criminal lawyer since she isn’t licensed to practice in Florida. She doesn’t want to see Maria end up back in the Sarasota County Jail.
During a press conference at a Sarasota church: “Bring her home!/Devuélvanla ahora!”
WSLR News will continue to track Maria’s serious situation as the wheels of justice continue to slowly turn.
Speaker: Bring Maria back home now.
Protesters: Bring Maria back home now.
Speaker: Say it loud. Say it clear. Immigrants are welcome here.
RL: This is Ramon Lopez for WSLR News.
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