SPOKANE, Wash. – A Tacoma immigration judge has ordered the removal of Caesar Alvarez Perez from the country, just over two months after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained him in Spokane.
Perez, whose detainment was the focus of significant community protest on June 11, has the opportunity to appeal the judge’s decision. His appeal is due by September 19, 2025.
The announcement of the judge’s verdict was posted on Perez’s automated case information from the Executive Office for Immigration Review.
The decision to remove Perez means that the U.S. government will deport him from the county.
Before the judge’s decision was released, Perez’s legal guardian Ben Stuckart, who says he has been in contact with him, had posted on August 3 that he expected Cesar’s case to be heard in the fall. He had previously posted on July 17 that he expected Cesar’s case to be held in October.
Joswar Slater Torres, who was detained alongside Perez and is also under guardianship of Stuckart, has an individual hearing scheduled for August 22, 2025 with Judge Jacob Stender in Tacoma, according to the automated case information from the Executive Office for Immigration Review.
Stuckart expected Torres’s asylum hearing to be held this month, as stated in his August 3 post. Joswar had previously had a , but it was delayed.
Perez and Torres were previously in the United States legally under the CHNV program, a program that was the focus of a federal legal battle after its initial termination on March 25, 2025 and until a final official notice by the Department of Homeland Security on June 6, 2025 said that the termination decision would be enforced.
At the time of their arrest, former Spokane government leaders Ben Stuckart and Shelly O’Quinn that the two men had been following legal procedures and attending all required meetings.
Significant took place on June 11 when Perez and Torres were detained. Following the protest, community members were given state charges, were given federal charges and complaints about police conduct during the protest led to an by the Office of Police Ombuds.
