SPOKANE, Wash. – Cesar Perez, whose detainment by Immigration and Customs Enforcement caused protests in June, has chosen to self-deport after more than two months at the Tacoma Detention Center.
Former City Council President and Perez’s legal guardian Ben Stuckart announced the news on Facebook, writing that “he is now being sent back to a horrible place he spent years escaping.”
by an immigration judge just over a week ago, but had the opportunity to appeal the order anytime before September 19, 2025.
Stuckart did not specify when Perez chose to self deport, but wrote that “being detained in a cell when you have done nothing wrong, are 21 and scared … leads to these decisions.”
He said that Perez was informed that he would be leaving the Tacoma Detention Center and sent back to Venezuela at 3 a.m.
“To reiterate -Cesar came to the US legally,” Stuckart wrote. He added that Perez was working full time and had created a community in Spokane.
He also said that what he heard of Perez’s experience at the privately-owned Tacoma Detention Center, which is officially called the Northwest ICE Processing Center, matched details of inhumane conditions at the facility that he said were reported last week. .
“The decisions being made today have very real consequences for very real, beautiful humans and it makes me so sad, angry and discouraged,” he wrote.
He said that they will remain in contact with Perez and try to provide him support.
“When did empathy for others begin to be seen as a weakness? When did we forget we are a nation built on immigration? When did those in power forget they are here to serve the people, not to protect their privilege?” he asked.
Joswar Slater Torres, who was detained at the same time as Perez and is also being held at the Tacoma Detention Center, was scheduled for an individual hearing on August 22 with Judge Jacob Stender.
On August 22, Stuckart posted that Torres’s asylum hearing that day allowed the case to continue there for four to six weeks.
Stuckart is currently facing for his role in the June 11 protests. On August 22, he said that his pre-trail conference would be on September 8.
