A large crowd of people gathered in downtown Los Angeles to protest the detention and potential deportation of a 54-year-old woman caught up in a drug bust.
Teresa Vidal-Jaime was arrested by federal officials after a major drug bust this week in Boyle Heights.
Her husband--Hugo Rueda and the three other men were arrested on narcotics charges and were being held in Los Angeles County jail on $500,000 bail each.
Vidal-Jaime's daughter, Claudia Rueda--an immigration activist, says her mother's detention is unlawful and march organizer Marcela Henandez says Vidal-Jaime was swept up as an innocent person in a criminal probe.
“Her mother didn’t have anything to do with this... [she] didn’t know anything about anything in the apartment. She let them in.”
LA County Sheriff's Department officials say the Border Patrol alerted them to a cross-border drug trade connected to a car that arrived at the Boyle Heights apartment.
When officers arrived, they say Vidal-Jaime consented to the search that led them to the drugs and money.
The Sheriff's department says investigators detained her at the scene but was later released because they didn't believe she was involved with the actual drug bust.
In a statement the Border Patrol says they took custody of Vidal-Jaime because they discovered she was living in the US illegally.
At the protest, Rueda was surrounded with support for her mother's freedom.
“Despite being told she would not be detained as long she cooperated, my mother was apprehended during an illegally conducted raid at my apartment...I know my mother is innocent, and both [the Sheriff’s Department and Border Patrol] know that, which is why they were supposed to let her go.”