Whatcom County activist held by ICE appeared in court. Here’s what we know
An immigration judge ruled Thursday that she has no jurisdiction to grant bail for a Whatcom County farmworker and immigrant rights activist who was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials nearly two months ago.
Alfredo “Lelo” Juarez Zeferino, who is being held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center following his March 25 arrest by ICE agents, is asking for his release in advance of a November court date on charges that he is in the United States illegally.
Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Theresa M. Scala heard arguments Thursday morning. Later, she said that she can’t rule on the issue, Zeferino’s immigration attorney, Larkin VanDerhoef, told McClatchy.
“She says she doesn’t have jurisdiction. But she said that she would issue the bond if she does,” VanDerhoef said Friday morning.
VanDerhoef asked for $5,000 bond Thursday. He argued that Scala has jurisdiction to issue a bond, but it was possible that Scala could say that she doesn’t have jurisdiction when she makes her ruling. Many immigration judges are using that argument in denying bail while they await the outcome of a separate court case that is expected to decide that issue, Larkin said.
“I’m — what do they say? — guardedly optimistic. I’m hopeful,” VanDerhoef told McClatchy after the hearing Thursday.
“They didn’t decide one way or the other. I think we were able to say what we wanted to say. He’s not a person who should be detained and I hope that he gets an opportunity to get out,” he said in an interview outside the courtroom.
Bond hearings are about whether a detainee is a flight risk or a danger to the community if released. Recently there have been judges declaring that they don’t have jurisdiction and aren’t able to give bond to someone alleged to have entered the country illegally, according to VanDerhoef.
During the hearing, an ICE attorney argued that Zeferino had not shown up for a previous unrelated court hearing and that was evidence he was a flight risk. VanDerhoef said that it was later proved that Zeferino was never told to appear for that hearing.
At least 60 people demonstrated outside the ICE facility’s gates before and during the hearing, trickling in throughout the morning.
Zeferino was born in Mexico, according to previous Bellingham Herald reporting. But The Herald has been unable to confirm his immigration status.
He has been politically active for several years, and he has been volunteering with Community to Community, a Bellingham-based food justice organization, and as an immigrant-rights organizer. He helped form the Independent Democratic farmworker union Familias Unidas por la Justica, and he served on the city of Bellingham’s Immigration Advisory Committee until it was dissolved in October.
Both Democratic U.S. Sen Patty Murray and U.S. Rep Rick Larsen, an Everett Democrat whose 2nd Congressional District includes Bellingham, have issued statements in support of Zeferino and have criticized the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants.
“In arrests across the country, the Trump administration and ICE have claimed that they are going after ‘the worst of the worst’ — but there is no indication that Zeferino and the other people detained today represent the worst of the worst. Immigrating to the United States is legal. Union organizing is legal,” Larsen said in an emailed statement.
This story was originally published May 8, 2025 at 1:06 PM with the headline "Whatcom County activist held by ICE appeared in court. Here’s what we know."
