{"id":207494,"date":"2026-06-01T15:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T15:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/207494\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T15:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T15:18:11","slug":"judge-orders-ice-to-release-berks-county-grandfather-from-unlawful-detention-spotlight-pa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/207494\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge orders ICE to release Berks County grandfather from \u2018unlawful detention\u2019 | Spotlight Pa"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was produced by the Berks County bureau of
\nSpotlight PA<\/a>, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom.
\nSign up for Good Day, Berks, a daily dose of essential local
\nstories at spotlightpa.org\/newsletters\/gooddayberks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

READING \u2014 A Berks County grandfather was released from an ICE
\nfacility on Friday after a federal judge ruled he had been wrongly
\ndetained while seeking protection under a humanitarian visa
\nprogram.<\/p>\n

In the opinion, Judge Stephanie Haines of the Western District
\nof Pennsylvania called Erasmo Zavala\u2019s detention at Moshannon
\nValley Processing Center \u201cunlawful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zavala was arrested by ICE on his way to work in April, even
\nthough he had applied for a U visa, a special federal immigration
\nprotection for undocumented victims and witnesses who cooperate
\nwith law enforcement. The program offers a pathway to lawful
\npermanent residency to eligible applicants.<\/p>\n

However, the Trump administration in January
\n2025<\/a> rescinded a \u201cvictim-centered\u201d approach that discouraged
\nICE agents from detaining immigrants with pending U and T visa
\napplications.<\/p>\n

Zavala applied after helping Berks County law enforcement
\ninvestigate the murder of his daughter, Selena, in a domestic
\nviolence murder-suicide in Reading. During the same attack,
\nSelena\u2019s two-month-old daughter was shot and critically wounded.
\nAfter months of surgeries and rehabilitation, the child survived,
\nand Zavala and his wife became her legal guardians and primary
\ncaregivers.<\/p>\n

“This is a tremendous victory for Erasmo, for baby Selene, and
\nfor every survivor who wonders whether coming forward and
\ncooperating with law enforcement will actually be met with
\nprotection,” said Bridget Cambria, an immigration attorney at the
\nfirm Aldea PJC who is representing Zavala.<\/p>\n

Haines on Friday granted Zavala\u2019s request for a preliminary
\ninjunction, noting that he was able to show a \u201clikelihood of
\nsuccess\u201d on the merits of claims and that he will \u201ccontinue to
\nsuffer irreparable harm\u201d if he is not released. Haines also wrote
\nthat \u201cpublic interest favors\u201d relief for Zavala because Congress
\nintended U visa protections to encourage victims and witnesses of
\nviolent crimes to come forward and assist law enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis Court finds the public interest in this effort is
\nweightier than the deportation of an illegal immigrant who [has]
\ncommitted no violent crime but has assisted in the investigation of
\nviolent ones,\u201d Haines wrote.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
\nfound Zavala\u2019s U visa petition to be \u201cbona fide,\u201d meaning it meets
\ncore eligibility requirements and has enough evidence to merit
\ntemporary protection while the agency continues to review his case.
\nThat makes him eligible for temporary deportation protection and a
\nwork authorization.<\/p>\n

A central issue in Zavala\u2019s case was whether he had an
\nenforceable deportation order from 2010. The court sided with
\nZavala\u2019s defense and agreed that the removal order ICE was using to
\njustify his detention was not valid.<\/p>\n

BEFORE YOU GO\u2026 If you learned
\nsomething from this article, pay it forward and contribute to
\nSpotlight PA at spotlightpa.org\/donate<\/a>.
\nSpotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers
\nlike you<\/a> who are committed to accountability
\njournalism that gets results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was produced by the Berks County bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom. Sign up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[31,856,139,50,128,130,129,13436],"class_list":["post-207494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-crime","tag-national","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-spotlight_pa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}