Three women detained by DHS will not return to SJI homes
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, August 11, 2026
None of the three women detained by the Department of Homeland Security on their way home from a housecleaning job on July 7 will return to their Friday Harbor homes. Two of them were taken to Mexico almost immediately, and the third, whose husband and child are both U.S. citizens, has decided to self-deport after reportedly “aggressive questioning” from an immigration judge.
“I think people don’t always understand that there are many barriers to people being able to stay, even when they have solid family ties here in our country,” explained Rebecca Smith, who works with the People’s Coalition of San Juan Island and is a board member of the Local Immigrant Family Treasury, both of which help support island neighbors with their immigration legal bills and financial support during immigration crises.
The two organizations were able to fund and procure legal help for all three women and have been trying to fundraise to support them during this time of transition. The first two, who were deported fairly quickly, were dropped off in Mexico with “only the clothes on their backs, not even a phone charger, let alone anything to help them get established in a new life,” according to Smith. All three women’s families, suddenly without a caretaker, provider and mother, also needed financial assistance.
The third woman remains in custody at the Northwest ICE Processing Center, where the fundraising efforts will support her commissary for phone calls, food and supplies, until her removal to Mexico.
“Very sadly, her husband, who is a US citizen, is going to move to Mexico with their US citizen child in order to be together,” Smith said. “This family is facing huge, huge disruption.”
Elley Hoague, a LIFT volunteer and retired attorney, acknowledged that it feels like one step forward and three steps back with the news about Jesus Cora staying at the same time these three women are removed.
“We’re thrilled for him, but it’s hard to focus on that in the face of these women’s lives being suddenly uprooted and their families in shambles,” Hoague told the Journal. “We’re devastated by this. It shows how difficult it is to keep up the good fight when good people are being trampled on. It’s very hard to celebrate anything these days.”
People can help these families by donating to LIFT, which funds legal fees, or to the People’s Coalition fundraiser, which funds their commissaries, family support and other costs of starting over.
“There are about a dozen families on the island here that are being helped by LIFT with their legal fees. That’s been a huge godsend for families on our island,” Smith said of the funds donated by community members. “The People’s Coalition folks volunteered to do a meal train. A dozen members made food for these families. Some donations are as small as $5 and some in the hundreds – it’s made a huge difference. All three of these women are mothers.”
