Tucson Dreamer released from ICE custody

A Tucson woman detained by ICE agents on Monday was released Friday afternoon from the Eloy Detention Center.

Three friends of 31-year-old Karla Toledo picked her up from the facility around 3:15 p.m. She left the site quickly and did not make a statement to reporters.

Carolina Silva, one of her friends and the director of the nonprofit Scholarships A-Z, requested privacy on Toledo and her family’s behalf.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Toledo early Monday morning inside her home and took her to Eloy two days later.

Her attorney, Mo Goldman, said he was glad she was out and able to reunite with her family.

“We will review all the documentation she was released with and determine what legal steps need to happen, including any immigration defense, moving forward,” Goldman told the Tucson Sentinel.

On Thursday, Goldman announced during a meeting between Tucson police and members of the public that Toledo had been granted a $1,500 bond, the lowest possible bond amount.

While Toledo was en route to Eloy, the Department of Homeland Security in a Wednesday statement accused her of illegally entering the country in 2024 and assaulting an officer during her arrest.

U.S. Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva, the first person to speak with Toledo while she was in custody, said Friday she was relieved by Toledo’s release. But, she added, Toledo should have never been in ICE custody in the first place.

“She has the critical job of helping recruit healthcare workers, pays her taxes and gives back to our community serving on local boards and through volunteer work,” Grijalva said. “She is the complete opposite of the ‘worst of the worst’ that Trump claimed he would prioritize.”

Grijalva noted that Toledo suffered through the traumatic experience of being taken from her home by masked agents, who refused to show her any warrant when she asked.

“ICE has still failed to answer why they entered her home without a warrant signed by a judge, or why they attempted to smear her name with unsubstantiated allegations about what occurred,” the Democratic congresswoman continued. “The conduct of the agents during the arrest, along with ICE’s handling of the incident afterward, raise deeply troubling questions about an agency that continues to act as if they are above the law. The agents involved must be investigated and held to account.”

Goldman, who held a press conference Wednesday in response to the DHS allegations, categorically denied that Toledo had assaulted any officer during her arrest. Security camera video of the incident shown to reporters at the press conference showed no assault.

In response to the illegal entry claim, he said, she’d gone on a trip to Modelo, Mexico, and returned to the U.S. in October 2024, authorized by an advanced parole document valid for over a month at multiple points of entry.

Toledo is a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program under U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children, often called Dreamers.

Without the appropriate paperwork, Goldman said, Dreamers who leave the U.S. are barred from re-entering for a decade.

Toledo had lived in the U.S. since she was a year old, had been a DACA recipient for over a decade.

He believed she was targeted because of her association with local immigrant rights group, Coalición de Derechos Humanos.

Toledo’s detainment spurred outcry from the public, and Grijalva and other elected officials called for her immediate release.

Members of the public gathered on the afternoon of Toledo’s Monday arrest outside of the ICE Tucson field office, located at 6431 S. Country Club Rd. in protest.

At the Thursday meeting that included Goldman, Tucson Police Chief Monica Prieto said the owner of the building leased by DHS for the ICE field office called officers to report a disturbance.

Those officers turned away an immigration attorney who asked to speak to Toledo instead of trying to facilitate communication between the two, which Prieto said was a mistake.

Another person at the protest was cited and released, Prieto said, after they stood in front of an unmarked TPD SWAT vehicle and refused to move, believing those inside were ICE agents.