Sonoma County Woman, Held By Immigration For A Year, Is Released

SONOMA COUNTY, CA -- A Mexican woman from Santa Rosa who has been in immigration detention for more than a year was released from the Sonoma County Main Adult Detention Facility on a $25,000 bond Monday, an advocate said.

Yazmin Elias Obregon, 34, is reunited with her family for the first time in nearly 15 months, said Blanca Vazquez, a leader of a campaign to free Elias.

Elias was taken from Contra Costa County's West County Detention Center in Richmond on May 12 and was transferred to Sonoma County, where she remained until now.

"She is finally at liberty and able to be with her family," Vazquez said.

The bond that got her out of immigration detention was granted by Immigration Judge Scott Simpson on Thursday in San Francisco and an anonymous donor offered to put up the $25,000, Vazquez said.

"It's kind of a miracle," Vazquez said of the offer.

Before she was released, Elias was taken to the Sonoma County facility because there was a bench warrant for her arrest there.

The bench warrant was issued because Elias had missed a hearing regarding a 2015 citation for driving under the influence because she was in immigration detention. The warrant has been lifted, Vazquez said.

Elias came to Santa Rosa from Mexico at the age of 4 and is the mother of three teenagers who are U.S. citizens.

She is currently facing deportation proceedings and the bond will be in effect until the proceedings are completed. The date of her deportation hearing has not been set, her attorney Luis Reyes Savalza said last week.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took Elias into custody on Feb. 26, 2016, after a state court probation hearing related to a citation she received for driving under the influence in 2015.

Although state court judges in the DUI criminal case had said she could remain free on probation while continuing rehabilitation for addictions related to abuse by two former boyfriends, Simpson denied release on bond at immigration hearings last year.

He said the reason was that her three DUI convictions and four citations for driving without a license showed that she was a danger to the community.

Elias' lawyers say she has recovered from alcoholism and methamphetamine addictions that were responses to severe domestic abuse.

This year, Elias filed a habeas corpus lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco to challenge her continued detention.

In an April 20 ruling, U.S. District Judge William Orrick declined to grant a temporary restraining order requiring her release, but ordered a new bond hearing in immigration court.

Orrick said in that ruling that Elias should be given a chance to argue that she was successfully rehabilitated, was no longer at risk for addiction because she was not in an abusive relationship and was not a danger to the public.

"Deprivation of liberty should be a rare circumstance for non-citizens in immigration detention, reserved only for those who are a threat to national security or poor bail risks," Orrick wrote.

Savalza said last week he believes that decision gave "important guidance" to the immigration judge.

The attorney said he thinks Elias has a good chance of winning her fight against deportation.

He said she is seeking asylum on the grounds that the father of her children, who has returned to Mexico, has threatened her.

Bay City News contributed to this report/Image via Shutterstock