Portillo was detained during a routine federal check-in appointment in November of last year and imprisoned in the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Facility in Bakersfield. Portillo was born in El Salvador, but has lived in the United States from age seven and the past four years in Arcata with her four American daughters, mother and several other family members.

“My sister has been stuck in detention for seven months. She has missed her daughters’ birthdays and graduations,” said Portillo’s sister Jenny Ventura.  “Claudia is a strong, vital part of our community and is enduring something unthinkable for most of us,” said True North Organizing Network Leader Lisa Enge of McKinleyville. “(Portillo’s been) waiting in detention for more than seven months. This is wrong. Claudia is not a criminal. She is a lovely human being who deserves better than this.”

Among the North Coast community groups that have advocated for Claudia Portillo’s return are True North Organizing Network, Arcata United Methodist Church, Catalyst Church, Humboldt Move to Amend, Centro Del Pueblo, among others. Los Bagels donated breakfast and snacks to the convoy of supporters that traveled from Humboldt County to San Francisco for Portillo’s hearing. U.S Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), who represents Portillo in California’s 2nd Congressional District, wrote a letter to Judge O’Brien requesting her release.

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