What started as a quick trip to buy soccer socks for her son ended with four months in federal custody. On Friday morning, Albany resident Maria Trinidad Loya Medina finally walked out of the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma and back into the arms of her family, after a federal magistrate ordered her release.
Judge Orders Immediate Release
On Thursday, Magistrate Judge Grady L. Leupold of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington granted Loya Medina’s second habeas corpus petition and ordered her immediate release; she was freed the next morning. In his written decision, Leupold found that the Tacoma immigration judge had “abused their discretion” and said that keeping Loya Medina in custody would cause “irreparable injury” to her family, according to OPB.
How She Was Arrested
Loya Medina was arrested on January 10 in the parking lot of the Big 5 Sporting Goods in Albany while she shopped for soccer socks for her son, according to the habeas petition filed on her behalf. The filing describes how ICE agents smashed a car window to remove her and transported her to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, part of a broader enforcement sweep known as Operation Black Rose. Those details appear in the petition prepared by Innovation Law Lab and in local reporting by the Albany Democrat-Herald.
Judge's Ruling And Legal Findings
Leupold sharply criticized the brief, unrecorded bond hearing Loya Medina received in February. He concluded that her behavior during the arrest did not make her a flight risk and that the immigration court’s decision to deny bond could not be justified on the record. “No reasonable and impartial decision-maker presented with the facts and evidence of Petitioner’s case would conclude denial of bond was warranted,” he wrote, ordering that she be released without further delay, according to OPB.
Case Status And Next Steps
Even with Loya Medina out of custody, her immigration case is far from over. In March, her attorneys filed a second habeas petition in federal court, Case No. 2:26-cv-772, while also pursuing an administrative appeal of the no-bond ruling at the Board of Immigration Appeals. The petition lays out a detailed timeline and argues that her prolonged detention violated her Fifth Amendment due-process rights, according to filings from Innovation Law Lab. The federal docket documents the filings, the appeal, and the legal basis for seeking her immediate release, as reflected in records compiled by Habeas Dockets.
Family And Community Reaction
For Loya Medina’s family, her release closes a painful chapter but not the entire book. Relatives say the months apart took a toll, as her husband continued recovering from a stroke he suffered in December and their teenage daughter grappled with depression. Local leaders and immigrant-rights advocates had repeatedly pushed for her release and used the case to raise broader alarms about ICE sweeps in Oregon; members of Congress and the Albany City Council highlighted her situation in public meetings, according to coverage in the Albany Democrat-Herald. Earlier reporting on the family’s appeals and the government’s deadlines to respond to her release petition was detailed by regional outlet NBC16.
