I write to ask for the immediate parole and release of the Martinez family. Sonia Guadalupe (A#202-132-712) and her two young daughters, Luisa (13) and Mary (10), are being detained at the Karnes Family Detention Center, and their father, Julio Martinez (A#202-132-711), is at the Port Isabel Detention Center. This family turned themselves in at the insistence of the U.S. Consulate in Mexico. This family was forced to flee after their U.S. Citizen son, Julio, was kidnapped by the military in Mexico. This family is not a flight risk, nor are they a danger to the community; they should immediately be granted parole and released from detention!

I ask that you not only release this family, but that you also assist them in finding out what happened to their son, Julio Cesar Martinez. Julio was born in Brownsville, Texas, he is a United States Citizen. The 22 year old would frequent between Houston, Texas and Matamoros, Mexico where his family lived.

Julio disappeared on June 13, 2014. On that day, Julio and two friends were out fishing for shrimp. On their way home the car they were driving was stopped by the Mexican Navy, witnesses say they saw a white hummer belonging to the Navy Commander Victor Colorado Fernandez stop the boys. The three boys were taken from the vehicle, they were beaten and tied up and taken into the custody of the Mexican Navy. A witness to the stop contacted Sonia who immediately rushed to the Navy station in Matamoros, Mexico, and demanded the release of her son. The Navy denied having detained anyone, despite Sonia clearly seeing the boys car parked at the Navy station.

Sonia, and the parents of the other two boys have spent the summer protesting the disappearance of their children. Their plight, similar to that of the 43 students kidnapped in Guerrero, Mexico, has been widely covered in the Mexican media. On September 16th, during a Mexican Independence day event, attended by both the Navy Commander who kidnapped Julio and the U.S. Consulate in Mexico, the families interrupted the event asking for answers.

Since Julio is a United States Citizen, the U.S. Consulate asked Sonia to bring them documents, so that they can look into the disappearance of her child. In late October Sonia gave the consulate the documents they were requesting. That same day however the Mexican military raided the families home in Matamoros in an effort to find Sonia. Fearing for their lives, the family contacted the U.S. Consulate again and someone, refusing to provide his name, instructed them to turn themselves in at the U.S. Port of Entry and explain their fears.

On November 3rd, 2014, Sonia, her husband Julio and their two young daughters turned themselves in and requested asylum. This family is not a flight risk, and they should therefore immediately be released from detention. This family was only put at risk after they began looking for answers in the disappearance and kidnapping of their son, a United States Citizen. I ask that you help this family find Julio.

I ask that you immediately grant parole for this family, and that you help them find their U.S. citizen son, Julio. Since that day in June Julio has not been seen or heard from. Julio had plans to return to Houston later in June.

Help us find Julio.