After a successful habeas corpus filing, Gerardo Reyes, a San Antonio father, is being released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after a traffic stop in March that led to his arrest and immigration case.
Gerardo Reyes was released at 5 p.m. from the T. Don Hutto ICE Detention Center in Taylor, Texas on June 1, after over 60 days in detention. A Habeas Corpus claim challenged the legality of Gerardo Reyes’s detention and allowed a judge to release him from the detention center while his immigration case is pending.
“Gerardo is coming home,” Guadalupe “Lupe” Sarinana, Gerardo Reyes’ daughter, said in a press release sent out by Eric Martinez, executive and policy director of Mano Amiga. “This victory belongs to every person who signed a petition, showed up at City Hall, called the DA [District Attorney], and refused to stay silent. We proved that when we move together, we win together.”
On March 14, the San Marcos Police Department conducted a traffic stop that led to the arrests of Gerardo Reyes and his 17-year-old son, Esteban Reyes. Both were charged with interfering with an officer’s duty after refusing to exit the vehicle. After the arrest, Gerardo Reyes was transferred to ICE custody.
Habeas Corpus is a legal right that allows anyone detained by the government to demand a court review of their imprisonment, requiring law enforcement to produce the detainee and legally justify their confinement.
unGerardo Reyes’ legal team filed for Habeas Corpus after an immigration judge denied his application for cancellation of removal on May 12. Additionally, SMPD placed the arresting Officer Jaciel Cortina on administrative leave on April 10.
According to the press release, Cortina was only placed on a 24-hour suspension and the city of San Marcos admitted Cortina violated three department policies during the arrest.
“A 24-hour suspension did not bring our father home. Community pressure did,” Sarinana said in a Mano Amiga press release. “Detention centers profit from keeping families apart. Politicians win votes on fear. But we proved that people power is stronger.”
Hays County District Attorney Landon Campbell declined to charge, meaning no formal charge was filed against Gerardo Reyes after the Reyes Family and Mano Amiga delivered a petition on May 8.
Throughout Gerardo Reyes’ immigration case and his time in the detention center, Gerardo Reyes’ wife, Sanjuana Escalante, said they were struggling to keep their house in San Antonio because her husband was the main financial provider.
“We gather not only for the Reyes family but for every person enduring the tension, separation and injustice behind closed doors. We gather for the fathers, mothers, children, siblings and loved ones who are being treated as disposable by systems that criminalize immigrants,” Nataly Avendano, immigration equity director for Mano Amiga, said during the solidarity vigil for Gerardo Reyes on May 12.
Esteban Reyes’ charges remain in a pre-file status, where the district attorney has yet to make any action to file or disregard Esteban Reyes’ charges.
According to the press release The Reyes’ family is demanding a full dismissal of all charges against Esteban Reyes, greater accountability for Cortina, a policy change at SMPD to adopt the Hartman Reforms and to end police and ICE collaboration in Hays County.
The Hartman Reforms are a set of community police accountability and transparency policies that eliminate the 180-day statute of limitations on investigation of officer misconduct, end delays in misconduct interviews by increasing transparency and making personnel files more accessible, bans third-party arbitrators from the disciplinary process, gives local authorities the final say in employment, and eliminates vacation forfeiture, no longer allowing officers to substitute suspensions with forfeited vacation days.
