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An undocumented Maryland mother whose teenage son died while she was in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody has now asked to be deported to her native Mexico.
Officials did not release Arlit Martinez-Carrada in time to see her son before he died of cancer early last month. She was able to attend his funeral in late January.
An official with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told WJZ-TV that Martinez-Carrada entered the country illegally four separate times before her arrest on January 3 in Salisbury, Wicomico County.
Courtesy of Arlit Martinez-Carrada
Race against time
Three days into the new year, ICE agents pulled Martinez-Carrada over as she drove her husband’s car on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
She had no criminal record, but had been living in the U.S. illegally since 2004 after she entered from Mexico, according to court records.
At the time of her arrest, Martinez-Carrada’s 15-year-old son, Kevin Martinez, a U.S. citizen, was fighting cancer.
Courtesy of Arlit Martinez-Carrada 
The day after Martinez-Carrada’s arrest, her son’s condition worsened significantly.
Immigration attorney Sarah Takyi-Micah remembers getting an urgent call the day after Martinez-Carrada was taken into custody.
“In this case, time was not on my side. A mother needed to be with her son on his deathbed,” said Takyi-Micah with the Silmi Law Firm. “That was a lot of pressure.”
The oncologist warned it was likely Kevin would die that day.
Getting heartbreaking news
Kevin held on while ICE transferred Martinez-Carrada to a holding facility inside the federal building in downtown Baltimore.
Takyi-Micah rushed there.
“My first line of action is to go straight to the Baltimore holding room, which is about a 20-minute drive from our office,” she said.
But as she waited to speak to an officer, she got the heartbreaking news that Kevin had died.
Takyi-Micah recalled how she told Martinez-Carrada about her son’s death with the help of her paralegal and Kevin’s oncologist on the phone.
“It was traumatic, and unfortunately, I had to be the bearer of bad news in that moment. I had to inform Arlit in detention that her son had just died, and that was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do,” Takyi-Micah said. “I had to watch Arlit break down right in the interview room in the detention center. We were separated by glass. I couldn’t console her. I couldn’t…I mean, if I’m being honest, I was in tears.”
She said she touched the glass between them, and Martinez-Carrada wiped away her tears with all she had—a roll of toilet paper.
“Even to this day, it’s still hard, but as a professional, what I could do is to get her out so that she could be with her family and be able to grieve, to comfort her children,” Takyi-Micah said.
She said an officer in Baltimore made her a promise when she asked, “Are you going to make sure she’s here for the funeral? He gave me his word they were not going to transfer her out. They did after a few days, unfortunately.”
Transferred to New Jersey
Getting Martinez-Carrada to her son’s funeral was no easy task.
“They couldn’t tell me exactly where they had taken her,” Martinez-Carrada’s lawyer said. “I was able to locate her in New Jersey a few days after that.”
ICE had transferred Martinez-Carrada to Delaney Hall in New Jersey, a controversial detention center that has been the target of protests. A Haitian immigrant died there in December.
Delaney Hall has 1,000 beds and is one of the largest detention centers in the Northeast. CBS News got a rare look inside last year.
Martinez-Carrada’s three surviving children and husband waited in Maryland, desperate for her return.
“She’s never going to see him no more and we tried to take her out, but they not let her out. I said bye to the last time to my son,” her husband, Rigo Mendoza-Lopez, told CBS station WBOC.
Courtesy of WBOC-TV 
Free for now
Takyi-Micah worked with Carolina Curbelo, an immigration lawyer in New Jersey, to free Martinez-Carrada in time to attend her son’s funeral on January 31 in Salisbury.
She stressed that it took a team of people to navigate this single case and secure her client’s release.
Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen’s office also asked the federal government to release Martinez-Carrada so she could attend the funeral.
“No thanks to ICE. That’s thanks to all the members of the community and everybody who pushed to make sure at least she could be present for the memorial service,” Senator Van Hollen told Hellgren.
The Democrat has been critical of the Trump administration.
“It appears this lawless Trump ICE operation is designed to terrorize members of the community. They are clearly not focused on the worst of the worst. That’s what they said they were going to focus on, but this is a case where clearly, they’re lying when it comes to that test, because Arlit is someone who’s been in the United States more than 20 years with no criminal record.”
The senator had this message to Martinez-Carrada’s family: “Please understand that there are a lot more standing with you and want to be there for you in this moment of trauma than there are people targeting you.”
Trump administration responds
WJZ Investigates received the following response from DHS about the case, attributable to a DHS official, with capitalized words added for emphasis by the agency:
“On January 3, ICE arrested Arlit Martinez-Carrada, an illegal alien from Mexico, who has repeatedly entered this country illegally. She was previously removed THREE TIMES in 2002, and chose to commit a felony by illegally re-entering the country a FOURTH time on an unknown date. Despite this, an activist immigration judge has released her on bond pending immigration proceedings.
“Illegal aliens can take control of their departure with the CBP Home App. The United States is offering illegal aliens $2,600 and a free flight to self-deport now. We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the lawful, legal way to live the American dream. If not, you will be arrested and removed without a chance to return.”
Self-deportation
Martinez-Carrada’s lawyer said her client now plans to self-deport back to Mexico.
“If she feels that this journey would be better for her to go back to her home country so she can heal and start a new life, start fresh from this, I guess that is ultimately her decision as to what she wants to do,” Takyi-Micah said.
She noted there are other available legal options for her client.
The Trump administration has touted self-deportations through an app and has offered a $2,600 cash bonus to those who choose to leave.
But because Martinez-Carrada was detained and is now out on bond wearing an ankle monitor, her lawyer noted she has to go through a formal process involving the court and cannot leave immediately.
“Especially when you’re supposed to do ICE check-ins and future hearings,” Takyi-Micah said.
An online fundraiser for the family on the GoFundMe platform has raised more than $80,000 to cover expenses.
“In any group of people there are always bad apples, but in the case of Arlit, she has no criminal record whatsoever. She’s a devoted mother to her children and a good person in the community,” Takyi-Micah said. “…Rather than lump all immigrants in a box to say that they are creating problems for the country, I think that they should really look beyond that—especially with situations like Arlit. She is also human like all of us, and she still deserved the right to be with her son at his deathbed.”
Courtesy of Arlit Martinez-Carrada 
Her son’s obituary called his mother “beloved” and “the heart and matriarch of the family.”
The obituary said, “He found comfort in his mother’s cooking, especially her pozole, tamales, and soups, meals filled with love that tasted like home.”
Martinez-Carrada’s surviving children are ages 16, 12 and 9. Her lawyer said they are all United States citizens.
