Jefersson Bladimir Alemán Beltrán, 19, was taken into ICE custody outside a Santa Maria jail on July 24 as his mother, Alba Beltrán, waited to bring him home after a judge dismissed the charges against him for lack of evidence. Beltrán says agents beat her son, who told her by phone that he was hit in the head and chest after declining to answer questions about his immigration status and asking for a lawyer. Jefersson, who entered the U.S. in 2019 at age 14 as an unaccompanied minor, graduated from Santa Maria High School, and works picking strawberries alongside his mother, is now held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, where support workers say he has shown bruising, a swollen neck, and back pain. Beltrán also alleges the sheriff's office tipped off ICE ahead of her son's release, a possible violation of California's sanctuary law.