Jose Luis Cordova Herrera, the undocumented dairy worker who was detained by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) after a dental visit in Vermont last month, has finally been freed on bond. Immigrant rights group Migrant Justice, which led the charge to free him, said that agents were waiting in the parking lot and followed the car—being driven by a documented immigrant—for eight miles before pulling them over. But while Cordova Herrera is now free thanks to public outcry, he continues to remain under the ongoing threat of deportation.
“I want to thank everyone who supported me while I was locked up,” Cordova Herrera, a husband and father who sends his wages to his family in Mexico, said in a statement to ThinkProgress. “Being in prison you have a lot of time to think, to meditate, and I came to realize how important it is to be part of an organization like Migrant Justice. My freedom is proof of the power of an organized community.”
Border Patrol continues to dispute that agents were waiting outside the dental office, “reneging on the Department of Homeland Security’s guidance to avoid ‘sensitive locations’ like hospitals, schools, and places of worship so as not to disrupt the daily activities of those areas.” But federal immigration agents have shown themselves to be purposefully flouting their own policies, last year stalking a 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy and taking her into custody after emergency surgery.
Cordova Herrera will still have to return to immigration court, but his release is still no doubt a victory for the thousands of Vermonters who supported and rallied for him, including Vermont’s congressional delegation. Stating that Cordova Herrera has no criminal record, Senators Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders and Congressman Peter Welch wrote in a letter that “it is unclear why ICE would consider Mr. Cordova Herrera an enforcement priority.”