Jonathan Tejeda Perez’s first court hearing before an immigration judge took less than five minutes, but that was another example of a backlog of immigration cases in which the immigration system is crippled as President Donald Trump’s new policies add thousands of new lawsuits to the Docket.
“We have four million backlogs,” said Alma Rosa Nieto, an immigration lawyer in Los Angeles. “It (case) can take 1 to 2, up to 5 years.”
Tejada Perez was arrested on February 24 by an immigrant officer outside his home in El Monte. Agents targeted him due to convictions of drug paraphernalia and postal theft between 2012 and 2017. He had no deportation orders.
Tejada Perez’s undocumented mother, Yolanda, was arrested at the same time as a collateral arrest. She was shoplifting claims for 20 years. In her case, the judge granted bail within days of her arrest as she was the primary caretaker of her sick daughter, who was battling bone cancer.
Tejada-Perez has long hoped that it may give him the argument that it will be released sooner or later.
Nieto said undocumented immigrants can be expected to be behind the bars at the detention centre for several months, provided they do not have a deportation order. With all ice detention centers packed in, it could potentially be long.
NBC News reported on March 12 that the Department of Homeland Security said the Center is capable and houses around 47,600 individuals.
The Elmontean, detained by an immigration officer with his mother, is the first to speak up. Mekahlo Medina reports NBC4 News on Monday, March 31, 2025 at 5:30pm.
At the High Desert Detention Centre in Adelanto, where Tejada Perez is housed, the capacity is 1,940 prisoners. The facility has not responded to requests as to how many prisoners are currently housed.
“If the detention centre is fully capable, many will meet the judge and add to the 4 million people already waiting,” Nieto said.
Tejada-Perez is planning to marry his 28-year-old fiancee Christian Jimenez and hopes that he is showing the judge his bond to the country in hopes that it may help his case.
“He was there for a month,” Jimenez said. He says he communicates every day over the phone, but he is eager to see him soon. “I think the longer it gets, the more stressful it becomes. I don’t know what’s going on. Why have they kept him there for so long?”
“(It can be) very frustrating and painful because people are waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, if it’s going to be a year or four,” Nieto said.
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