WASHINGTON — A couple from Venezuela were arrested by federal immigration agents this week and charged with misdemeanor illegal entry, more than two years after their arrival at the southern U.S. border.
The timing of the arrests and charges is unusual and reflects the Trump administration’s increasingly aggressive immigration tactics. The couple had been granted temporary protection from deportation while their claims for asylum were being adjudicated.
Advocates for the couple say it is the first time they’ve seen such a case, in which immigrants have been charged with illegal entry long after the fact. They say the case could set legal precedent and may affect thousands of other immigrants who similarly entered the U.S. illegally but were granted legal protections. Those people are registered with the federal government, so their whereabouts are known to authorities.
The couple — Cesar, 27, and Norelia, 34 — asked to be identified by their middle names out of fear of repercussions from the Venezuelan government and concern for their pending claims.
“This is worse than a dictatorship,” said Cesar’s father, Gregorio, 51, who also asked to be identified by his middle name because of his own pending asylum claim. “If [Cesar] had committed an error, then he should pay for it. But this case is unjust.”
Cesar and Norelia are being held by the U.S. Marshals Service in Washington, D.C.
Cesar and Norelia fled Venezuela with Gregorio and other extended family members. Gregorio said they were persecuted because of their support for the opposition party in Venezuela. Gregorio worked as a security guard for members of the opposition. Cesar was in the military and wanted to quit but feared being jailed.
Planning to apply for asylum, the family made their way up through Central America and Mexico before wading across the Rio Grande and arriving at the U.S. border in 2022. They entered illegally near El Paso and approached Border Patrol agents, who processed and released them.
Everyone in the family now has Temporary Protected Status and a pending asylum application, Gregorio said. Temporary Protected Status allows people to legally reside and work in the U.S. if they face conditions — such as war or environmental disasters — that would prevent a safe return to their homelands.
Seeking asylum is a legal right under federal and international law, regardless of how someone arrives on U.S. soil. But the Trump administration has embarked on a campaign of mass deportations, stripping certain immigrants of their legal protections along the way.
The couple and their three children, ages 12, 9 and 4, settled in southeast Washington, where they found jobs making food deliveries and doing housekeeping.
On Monday, they were returning home from work around 1:30 p.m. when federal agents in an unmarked gray SUV arrested them.
In a video of the scene taken by the eldest son, a barking dog and crying children can be heard in the background as agents detain Cesar and place him in the SUV.
“We didn’t do anything!” the boy yells out in English.
“Illegal entry,” one of the agents tells the family in Spanish, adding that they have an arrest order.
The children were not taken into custody and allowed to stay with Norelia’s sister, who was home at the time.
“Thank God [the extended family] is here,” said Gregorio. “Imagine if those kids had been left alone? They separate you from your family for no reason.”
Criminal complaints for the couple were filed Feb. 27 in U.S. district court for the Western District of Texas, according to the documents. The complaints state that Cesar and Norelia knowingly entered the U.S. “approximately 1.22 miles west of the Paso del Norte Port of Entry” on Oct. 13, 2022.
A Times search of court records found no other criminal charges associated with Cesar and Norelia.
Living in the U.S. without lawful status is a civil offense, not a crime. But improper entry is a criminal statute under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. Those convicted can be fined or jailed for six months. A subsequent offense is a felony and can result in two years of jail time.
The first Trump administration relied on the statute to execute its “zero tolerance” policy that resulted in the separation of thousands of children from their parents at the southern border. Parents were charged with illegal entry and detained after being caught entering the U.S., while children were separately placed in federal custody and foster care.
Amy Fischer, director of refugee and migrant rights at Amnesty International who is assisting with the couple’s case, said she and other advocates have heard of a few cases since Trump returned to office of people with pending asylum claims or temporary legal protections being detained by immigration agents. Fischer said she expects to see more people targeted for deportation who have active protections in the coming weeks and months.
But the cases of Cesar and Norelia, Fischer said, are unprecedented.
“Everybody is very concerned about this,” she said. “We’re really seeing it as the first of this type of case.”
During a federal district court hearing Wednesday afternoon, the couple appeared by video in orange jumpsuits.
Megan McFadden, an attorney for the federal government, argued that Cesar and Norelia could be a flight risk and should be kept in detention. She said that when they were released at the border, agents had instructed them to report to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement within 60 days but they did not. She also noted that their asylum claims were filed earlier this month, “well past” the typical one-year deadline.
McFadden said ICE had prepared an administrative warrant and was ready to take them into civil custody as soon as they are released from criminal custody.
Public defender Tezira Abe told Judge G. Michael Harvey that Cesar and Norelia filed the asylum claims a week after federal officials announced that TPS protections would end. They had no knowledge of the government’s criminal complaint until they were arrested.
The government acted as if the pair had made a backhanded attempt to seek asylum, Abe said, but “it is not that simple.”
At one point, McFadden said she wasn’t aware that the couple had paperwork confirming their TPS. “That is new information to me,” she told Harvey.
Unconvinced that Cesar and Norelia were a flight risk, Harvey ordered they be released from custody, though they still face criminal charges.
“I was underwhelmed by the government’s knowledge of what was going on here,” Harvey said. But he issued a warning: “I have no control over what ICE does.”
