Almost three weeks have passed since Lourdes Martinez last saw her daughter, Maria Martinez.
There's an emptiness inside their house, the mother said.
"Ella es la luz de la familia y es la que siempre se mantiene motivándonos. Ella es la alegría de la casa (She was the light of the family, the one who always kept us motivated, she was our joy) ," she said.
Maria Martinez, 22, graduated last December from the State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota. Her family said she has dreams of becoming a pilot but needed to save up for flight school. So she found work at a restaurant, alongside her mom.
That's where she was heading home from, her mom said, when she was stopped by North Port police on May 21 for an illegal U-turn.
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Maria Martinez is in the country without legal documentation and doesn't have a driver's license, a second-degree misdemeanor for first-time offenders. However, local authorities can notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which could lead to deportation.
Although police typically aren't enforcers of immigration laws, more agencies are partnering with federal immigration officials as President Donald Trump makes good on his promise to deport millions without legal documentation.
The North Port Police Department is among more than 200 agencies in Florida — the most in the nation — that are allowed to carry out certain immigration enforcement tasks.
That night, Lourdes Martinez said her calls and texts to her daughter went unanswered.
"Lo primero que pensé que había pasado un accidente o siempre como madre, piensas lo peor. (The first thing I thought was that she was in an accident. As a mother, you always think the worst)," she said.
It wasn't until the next morning that she found out her daughter was in police custody.
Lourdes Martinez said she paid the Sarasota County sheriff's office the $500 bond for driving without a license, believing her daughter would be released.
Instead, Maria Martinez was transferred into ICE custody.
Last weekend, she was sent halfway across the country from the Krome Detention Center in Miami to the El Valle Detention Center in Raymondville, Texas.
Lourdes Martinez said she lies awake every night.
"Siempre en todo momento, estoy pensando en mi hija. (Every moment, I am thinking about my daughter)," she said.
Detentions of immigrants without criminal histories are a growing trend
At a rally Saturday at the Church of the Trinity MCC in Sarasota County, Lourdes Martinez pleaded for her daughter's release.
"Ella no es una criminal, ella no merece estar ahí. Yo creo que todo mundo hemos errado de alguna manera, pero yo creo que todos merecemos una oportunidad (She is not a criminal, she does not deserve to be there. I think everyone has made mistakes in some way, but I think we all deserve a chance)," she stated.
Maria Martinez came to the U.S. with her family from Mexico in 2015 when she was 12 years old.
Her mom said she is afraid to speak out, but said she's doing it "with a mother's love."
"Pero esto lo hago con el amor de madre," she stated.
As of June 1, more than 50,000 immigrants were held in detention centers, the most since 2019, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, which analyzes ICE data.
The population that increased the most in the past two weeks was those without criminal charges or convictions.
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That means about a quarter of those detained have no criminal histories.
Evangeline Dhawan-Maloney is Maria Martinez's immigration attorney.
"There's a common misconception that these are folks with violent criminal histories or who are, perhaps, smuggling fentanyl over the border, or have ties to various criminal organizations, but that's just simply not the case," Dhawan-Maloney said. "But things have dramatically changed under the current administration."
Dhawan-Maloney said Maria Martinez has a bond hearing scheduled for July 1. If she's granted bond, she could reunite with her family in Florida as she waits for her immigration case to play out.
Esteban Viera, a high school classmate and friend of Maria Martinez, said he considers himself a Republican, but has disagreed with recent crackdowns on immigration.
"Where do they draw the line? There are many criminals, many dangerous people," Viera said, "but there's many good people, innocent people too. ... If it was up to me, I will draw the line."
Maria Martinez's sister said she misses her younger sibling. They've hardly been apart since coming to the U.S., she said.
Now, she's worried for the rest of her family's safety.
"I'm scared that they will take my child, like they have been doing with other mothers. I'm scared about my mom, my dad, we are just not safe anymore here," she said.
