SoCal family searching for mother of 2 after ICE arrest, transport to new detention facility

A family is desperately missing a mother who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Now, they say she's being moved to a new detention facility, where she might get deported.

Jacqueline Rivas Blandon was being held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, and her family's biggest fear with her getting moved to another facility is that she could get taken back to Nicaragua.

Rivas Blandon is a mother and a wife. Her family says they are struggling to get answers and are trying to figure out where she is.

"We've been distraught, really, because ever since she got detained, it's been a shock to the whole family," said her son-in-law, Richard Ker.

Ker says she was detained by ICE last month and was taken to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center. She's originally from Nicaragua and was allowed into the U.S. via the Parole Program under the Biden administration.

Early last year, Trump canceled the program, and Rivas Blandon applied for asylum. She was supposed to have a hearing a week or two after the arrest, but that didn't happen.

"We were just waiting for a court date, and all of a sudden one day, she got ambushed by ICE while driving, and they just took her," Ker said.

Rivas Blandon has two young children, ages 8 and 10, who are at home with her husband. The family says the judge was going to allow her to be released so that she could get her affairs in order and self-deport in March. She agreed to do that so she could be with her children, but ICE refused.

"Because she agreed to voluntarily depart, she thought, 'OK, we will have a couple of months to get all of her things in order. Get the tickets ready for the kids, because the kids have to go with her.' ICE was just like, 'No, we're not going to do that. We're going to detain you and keep you detained in Adelanto," Ker said.

As of Friday morning, the family believes Rivas Blandon is now being taken to another detention center in Arizona, but they worry that once she gets there, she could be moved to Nicaragua at any moment.

"Because they canceled that parole program which she entered legally through, they are now considering her as entering illegally. How can you take that back?" Ker said.

The family is now desperate for information and help. They have tried calling senators and congress members, but so far, have very little information. They fear there is nothing they can do.

"They're not being responsive. They don't answer your phone calls. They don't respond to the voicemails that you send. It's just been awful," says Ker.

Eyewitness News contacted ICE to get information about Rivas Blandon, but so far, they have not responded.