We Released Four More Immigrant Detainees from Otay Mesa!

In a powerful showing of solidarity and community, Attorney Lal, Luis Mora, and RISE at Berkeley, worked together to post bond for clients of the ABA Immigration Justice Project of San Diego who were detained at the Otay Mesa Detention Center. The ABA Immigration Justice Project of San Diego had fought hard to win bonds in these cases but these individuals were detained due to their inability to pay bond.

“I wanted to use the money I had to help others,” Mora said. “My mother’s mission in life — she was a doctor and a missionary — was to help as many people as possible. The day I got out she told me to help other people.”

One of the persons that we helped to release from detention through the funds raised from community was Santos, a 20-year-old that Luis befriended while he was detained at Otay Mesa. With little knowledge of the United States, Santos began his journey all the way from Honduras to this country of opportunity solely with two missions: escaping violence and achieving a better life thus he could help his ill mother. Unfortunately, this immigration system always disregards the bravest, and when he turned himself at the border for asylum he was quickly detained and held as a criminal for four months. 

For more news coverage on how we have helped to secure the release of other detainees lately, here is an interview of Attorney Prerna Lal on KRON4: