BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – A local farmworker rights activist has arrived back in Mexico after spending several months in ICE detention.
Locally based social justice group Community to Community said on Monday that Alfredo “Lelo” Juarez Zeferino has been reunited with his friends and family in his hometown.
My Bellingham Now previously reported that Juarez Zeferino was forcibly removed from his vehicle by ICE agents in late March while he was dropping off his partner at her workplace in Mount Vernon.
He announced earlier this month that he was choosing to voluntarily leave the country instead of applying for asylum, partly because he couldn’t stand the conditions inside the detention center.
Community to Community says his decision represents a “tremendous miscarriage of justice” and called the conditions at the NW Detention Center in Tacoma “inhumane.”
The organization also published a letter that Juarez Zeferino wrote earlier this month while in detention that he asked to be shared with his supporters.
