L.A. immigrant detained while taking his daughters to school to be released
LOS ANGELES — Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez, an immigrant in the country illegally who caused a furor when his arrest while taking his daughters to school was caught on video, is expected to be released Wednesday night after a judge announced that he is eligible to post a $6,000 bond.
The Wednesday morning bond hearing at the Adelanto Detention Facility in San Bernardino County was tense, with his four daughters sitting in a row on a bench as the judge questioned Avelica-Gonzalez about his family, his years in the U.S. and his criminal history. They sat wide-eyed, on the brink of tears.
A representative for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement requested a bond of at least $7,500, saying AvelicaGonzalez has skipped court hearings in the past. They called him a flight risk.
His lawyer, Alan Diamante, said he was not a flight risk because his greatest goal is to remain with his family. He requested the lowest possible bond amount, which is $1,500.
“Everything was negative. I was thinking she’s not going to grant him anything,” said Avelica-Gonzalez’s daughter Brenda, 24.
After less than 30 minutes of questioning, the judge decided on a compromise. AvelicaGonzalez is expected to be released Wednesday night.
Avelica-Gonzalez was detained in late February, minutes after he dropped off his 12year-old daughter Yuleni at school. Another daughter, still in the car when he was pulled over in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood, took cellphone video of his arrest by immigration agents, which went viral. Fatima, now 14, sobbed as she recorded the ordeal.
Earlier this month, an immigration appeals court threw out his final deportation order, kicking the case back to the local immigration court.
It could take years for a judge to enter a new decision. The backlog of cases pending at immigration courts around the U.S. topped 610,000 in June, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
Avelica-Gonzalez, a Mexican citizen, has lived in the United States for more than 25 years. His case drew national attention, with critics citing it as an example of President Donald Trump’s aggressive and sweeping stance on illegal immigration. Meanwhile, supporters of Trump’s hard-line approach emphasize that immigrants like Avelica-Gonzalez broke the law by coming to the country illegally and further undermined any claim to live in the U.S. when they committed crimes, however minor.
In June, lawyers settled Avelica-Gonzalez’s decades-old misdemeanor convictions — for driving under the influence and for receiving stolen car tags — that prompted the deportation order that led to his arrest. He pleaded guilty to lesser vehicle code violations.