SARASOTA, Fla. — A Sarasota woman's family is asking for help after they say she was sent to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Texas.
According to a North Port Police record, Maria "Lulu" Martinez, 22, was arrested for driving without a valid license on May 21. She was then handed over to ICE, which the family claims has transferred her three times: to Tampa, the KROME detention center in Miami, and now the El Valle Detention Facility in Raymondville, Texas.
Martinez's family said she came to the Sarasota area from Mexico with her family in 2015, when she was just 12 years old. She had dreams of going to college and graduated with an associate’s degree in business administration, which she paid for out of pocket by working a job every day she wasn't in school.
With her sudden detention by ICE and transfer to Texas, her family has been unable to visit her. Now, they're asking for the community's help.
Martinez's family, along with the Tampa Bay Immigrant Solidarity Network, is hosting a press conference on Saturday at 2 p.m., pleading for her return.
"We call on the media to help us bring national attention to these injustices and help us bring Maria (Lulu) home," the press release said. "It is inhumane and a violation of human rights to separate families. No family should be going through this pain and agony."
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