When 16-year-old Cristian Herrera couldn’t find his soccer socks for a game later that day, his mother told him she would buy some so he could focus on his upcoming match. Maria Trinidad Loya Medina drove to Big 5 Sporting Goods on Pacific Boulevard in Albany, just a few miles from their home. But she never made it back.

Six agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement surrounded Medina’s car in the Big 5 parking lot on Jan. 10, broke the car’s window and arrested her. She’s been detained at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma ever since.

Cristian recalled “a very, very brief” FaceTime call his mom made from inside the car, surrounded by agents.

“She had no time to go into details,” the South Albany High School junior told OPB. “All she said was that ICE was at her door while hiding her phone in her lap.”

Cristian and his aunt sped to the scene to find Medina’s abandoned car, surrounded by broken glass with a new pair of soccer socks on the front seat.

“I broke down into tears. I couldn’t believe it,” he said.

Medina is among more than 1,000 Oregonians detained in recent months amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Her case underscores the devastating ripple effects such arrests have on a detained immigrant’s family.

The Department of Homeland Security says Medina entered the U.S. illegally but her attorney and family say otherwise. Her family and lawyer also point to the 20 years she’s lived in the U.S. with no criminal history and the positive contributions she and her family have made to the community. OPB did not find any criminal record for Medina in Oregon courts and, other than the alleged illegal entry, federal authorities have not accused her of a crime.

Medina has now been detained in Tacoma for nearly two months. An immigration judge recently denied a request to cancel her removal from the U.S.

Her detention has devastated her family: She’s been the primary caretaker of her husband, who suffered a stroke in December and recently had heart surgery. And she’s the mother of two teenage children, who are now trying simultaneously to care for their father, go to school and deal with their mom’s immigration case.

Medina’s 14-year-old daughter, Valeria, was diagnosed with depression after the arrest. Cristian is managing as best he can.

“It’s heartbreaking having to see them both battling with this,” Cristian, the son, told OPB outside the recent court hearing. “And obviously I’m not going to say that it hasn’t been impacting me, but I’m kind of in a position of saying, ‘Well, I can’t be in a place where I’m crying. I want to be strong for them.’”

The arrest

In a statement to OPB, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Medina was detained in a “targeted vehicle stop” because she was an “illegal alien from Mexico” who had committed a felony by re-entering the country after previously being deported.

But Medina’s attorney, José Miranda, told OPB that his client was never deported and has lived in the U.S. for 20 years with no criminal record.

“DHS’s own records indicate that they were not looking specifically for her, and they did not show her a warrant upon arrest,” Miranda said

ICE records provided to OPB by Medina’s family state that a group of immigration agents known as Salt Lake City Team 6 was conducting surveillance at an apartment near Big 5 the morning of her arrest. The officers ran her license plate as she drove by and found she was “amenable to removal.”

Medina’s sister-in-law, Melissa Loya, told OPB that Medina previously encountered immigration officials at the border in 1998, when she was 17. The encounter resulted in Medina’s “voluntary return” to Mexico, according to ICE records.

On Jan. 10, the officers approached Medina’s vehicle, identified themselves as federal immigration officials and asked for her identification, according to ICE records.

Medina showed the officers her Oregon driver’s license but refused to exit the vehicle or answer their questions, the report states.

The report says that the officers displayed a warrant for her arrest and then “informed Loya-Medina that she was under arrest for being in the US illegally.”

“After giving several warnings, ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations) officers broke the rear-driver side door to unlock the vehicle to effect an arrest and placed handcuffs on her.”

According to Miranda, Medina has consistently said the officers never showed her a warrant.

‘Things just don’t feel the same without her’

The past six weeks with their mom in detention have been tough for Cristian and Valeria.

Between taking care of their dad, Serapio Herrera, trips to visit their mom in Tacoma, and the emotional toll of her absence, Cristian said he’s found it hard to find time to study. The high school junior plans to study engineering in college and so far has had straight As.

An assistant principal at South Albany High wrote to ICE officials noting Cristian’s 4.0 GPA and multiple advanced placement courses, his participation in sports and groups like the National Honor Society, the district’s Bilingual Education Program and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

“Cristian is a kind, hardworking and dedicated student with the highest level of integrity and character,” assistant principal Anna Herryman wrote. “He models all of the values we hold in high regard in our school and community. This speaks volumes to the parent and quality of home he has received from his parents.”

In this new reality, Cristian is helping work through medical forms for his dad and legal documents for his mom.

Letters from two doctors who have treated their father ask ICE to consider releasing Medina, who “has long-served as his primary care giver” for multiple health issues. In addition to the stroke and surgery, he also has a heart defect and diabetes.

“Wherever I go, things just don’t feel the same without her because I find myself thinking, how would this be if she was here?” Valeria said of her mom. “It’s all different without her, and we just miss her.”

Letters from a teacher and counselor at Valeria’s school say she is visibly distressed and unable to focus at school.

“She is having to excuse herself from classes because she can’t stop worrying about her mom,” counselor Brenda Rodriguez wrote. “When talking to Valeria she repeatedly tells me with tears in her eyes, ‘I just miss my mom.’”

A study from the University of Illinois-Chicago found that kids with parents in immigration detention experience more social isolation, academic withdrawal, anxiety, depression and anger than most kids.

For the past month and a half, Cristian and Valeria have only seen their mother from inside the detention facility where Medina wears a prison-like jumpsuit. They keep their conversations vague in case ICE officials are listening, Cristian said.

“There’s been a lot of hard moments where I’ve wanted to give up on everything,” Valeria said.

Yet the brother and sister also feel a sense of resilience. Valeria said she now wants to be an immigration attorney when she’s older.

Cristian has learned he’s stronger than he realized. He said a situation like this a few years ago would have caused him to “collapse.”

“We’re not going to crumble and we’re not going to give in,” he said.

Two decades in the U.S.

Medina was born in Michoacan, Mexico in 1981 according to records submitted to the Tacoma immigration court and shared with OPB. After being turned away at the border in 1998, she moved to the U.S. — where several of her siblings already lived — in 2005, according to the family.

In 2008, Medina married Serapio Herrera in a Catholic church in West Valley City, Utah. Cristian was born in Denver a year later and Valeria in Chicago in 2011.

The family moved a lot when the kids were younger but settled in Albany seven years ago. Both kids have strong community ties through soccer, tennis and church activities.

The siblings miss waking up to Medina’s homemade breakfasts, cooked with love before she rushed off to work as a house cleaner six days a week.

Each step in the process of Medina’s immigration case since her detention has been a fight. DHS initially determined Medina was “subject to mandatory detention” and ineligible for a bond hearing that could lead to her release from detention.

That’s not unusual. In 2025, a federal district court in Washington found the Tacoma immigration court was unfairly denying detainees’ bond hearings. Medina’s attorneys successfully petitioned the court for her to get a hearing.

When Medina eventually had that hearing 32 days after her arrest, immigration Judge John C. Odell denied her release.

Medina’s attorneys then argued against her deportation, saying the family would face “extreme hardship” — grounds DHS can use to overrule removal orders.

Odell considered that request at a hearing Feb. 23. OPB reporters attempted to attend the hearing, which was open to the public, but Odell ordered them to leave the courtroom.

According to the family, Odell rejected Medina’s argument that resettling with her U.S. citizen children in Mexico – a foreign country to them – would be an extreme hardship. Odell compared it to a military family relocating as part of their service.

He also did not consider Valeria’s mental health, the family told OPB.

Medina’s attorneys plan to continue fighting the deportation orders and have reserved the right to appeal the decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals. If that board denies the appeal, they could take the case to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

As the case moves forward, Cristian and Valeria said they want their mom to know they’re not giving up.

“We’re still fighting for her. We’re staying hopeful,” Cristian said.

“We’re going to keep crushing school. We’re going to represent the Hispanic roots she’s ingrained in us and the values like hard work and humility. She shouldn’t worry about a thing, because we’re out here fighting for her as well.”

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/03/06/albany-oregon-mom-detained-ice-children-alone/