An undocumented El Monte mother, a 25-year U.S. resident and caregiver for her cancer-stricken daughter, is back home on a $1,500 bond for now and wearing an ankle bracelet after being caught up in ICE arrests and detained for almost two weeks.
Yolanda Perez-Magallón, 50, had quit her job to be a full-time caretaker after her 21-year-old daughter was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, an aggressive form of bone cancer, over a year ago. Perez, who has three other children, attended every treatment, chemotherapy session, and doctor’s appointment alongside her daughter, whose cancer left her in a wheelchair, her family said.
“She’s like my right hand, she does everything,” said her daughter, Xitlali Tejada, who is a U.S. citizen. “She never leaves my side for anything,”
“Yolanda Perez’s detention by ICE was a profound injustice and just one example of the many ways this Administration is destroying families,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis said in a statement Wednesday. “This heartbreaking situation exemplifies how immigration policies fail to prioritize human lives and instead harms families.”
An ICE spokesperson told Fox 11 that Yolanda and her son Jonathan Tejada were arrested as undocumented immigrants and citizens of Mexico who entered the U.S. “at an unknown location on an unknown date without being admitted or paroled by an immigration officer.”
Perez-Magallón was released on bond this week. She is scheduled to appear in court on April 10.
Her 33-year-old son, Jonathan Tejada, who is also undocumented and the family’s main breadwinner, was the target of the arrests on Feb. 24. He previously had been convicted for drug possession and petty theft, an ICE spokesperson told Fox 11, but had no arrests in the past eight years.
A family member who witnessed the encounter said ICE agents “ambushed” Perez-Magallón after she moved her car ahead of street sweeping, only to be surrounded by four to five black unmarked vehicles. Without identifying themselves, the men dressed in plain clothes with vests labeled police started questioning Yolanda about Jonathan, said her 25-year-old son, Christopher.
“They didn’t even identify themselves. They just pulled up on us and grabbed her. It was scary,” Christopher said.
Christopher told his mother she had a right to remain silent and was not required to respond. He said he watched as the agents became more aggressive after she refused to answer questions. He began to record the interaction after one agent threatened to arrest his mother if she refused to comply. The video shows Perez-Magallón visibly distressed and on the verge of tears as she is placed in handcuffs and led towards an unmarked van.
“They just turned her around, pushed her against the car, and handcuffed her,” he said. His mother cried out, “Mi van a yevar, mi van a yevar,” meaning, They are going to take me!
Jonathan Tejada heard the commotion and stepped outside. Christopher watched as three agents grabbed his brother and pushed him against a car. After some questioning, Jonathan was handcuffed and placed in a separate vehicle. The mother and son were transported to different detention facilities.
David Acalin, Yolanda Perez-Magallón’s attorney, said she was treated as a collateral arrest during the immigration sweep that targeted Jonathan. An arrest warrant would only have been necessary if ICE wanted to enter the home, he said. Otherwise, agents have more leeway to stop and detain someone as they would at a checkpoint.
With her mother gone, Xitlali Tejada’s family members have taken turns scheduling time off work to care for her. She continued to speak with her mom regularly over the phone while she was detained.
“It’s been very stressful,” Tejada said.
“She does everything for me,” she said of her mother. “Helps me get to the restroom, showers me, she cooks for me.”
A GoFundme for the family’s legal battles raised more than $41,000 as of Thursday, March 13.
It was not clear why Jonathan Tejada was targeted by immigration over nonviolent crimes from about eight years ago. A spokesperson from Immigration and Customs Enforcement could not be reached for comment.
“Yolanda’s recent release from bail is just one of many hurdles she and her family will have to face as immigration proceedings continue in this matter,” Solis said. “No one should be torn from their family in such a devastating way.”
