A survivor of a Walmart mass shooting that killed 23 people in El Paso, Texas, and targeted Latino people has been deported to Mexico, triggering widespread outrage among activists and local politicians.
Police reportedly stopped the woman – who was not named in full – due to a non-functioning brake light, then took her to a local jail. She was then placed into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), where she was soon deported to Mexico.
The legal defense team working on her behalf confirmed to local KVIA that city police arrested the woman, identified as just Rosa. She was booked into the El Paso county jail annex.
Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services told local KTSM that on Wednesday, the survivor was pulled over and, during the traffic stop, found to have two, five-year-old citations still outstanding.
By Friday morning, Rosa had been deported to Cuidad Juárez where she has remained ever since.
On a Saturday morning in early August 2019, a 21-year-old man walked into the El Paso Walmart Super Center and opened fire, first into the parking lot before taking aim at the store’s entryway. The attack killed 13 Americans, eight Mexicans and one German.
According to KTSM, Rosa and her sister witnessed the shooter attack the first victim outside the store. She relayed her account to the FBI and local authorities, and is reported to be one of a number of witnesses the local district attorney has tapped for the upcoming trial.
While the FBI continues to investigate the shooting as a potential hate crime or domestic terror incident, it is considered the deadliest anti-Latino attack in American history.
“Rosa is a survivor of one of the most horrific events to ever take place in El Paso,” Anna Hey, an attorney who leads the legal aid clinic, told KTSM. “She came forward and presented herself to both El Paso police and FBI officials to give a statement of what she saw on that fateful day”.
Hey argued the deportation amounted “to a re-victimization of this young lady, who only came forward to help build the case against the shooter in the racist attack”.
Activists and lawmakers from across the state have spoken out against the deportation, demanding that state and federal officials back efforts to have Rosa returned to the US.
“I’m supporting [Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services] efforts and will do everything I can to bring Rosa home and fight to protect victims and witnesses from deportation,” the Democratic congresswoman Veronica Escobar of Texas tweeted on Saturday.
Rosa — an El Pasoan and survivor and material witness of the deadliest terrorist attack against Latinos — was deported yesterday.
I’m supporting @DMRS_ElPaso efforts and will do everything I can to bring Rosa home and fight to protect victims and witnesses from deportation. https://t.co/K4w1l5iX2q
— Rep. Veronica Escobar (@RepEscobar) January 30, 2021
According to Rosa, her “whole life” has been spent in El Paso. “I got there when I was little – I don’t remember anything about Juárez,” she told local reporters, noting that she had graduated high school there as well.
According to Hey, information Rosa provided to law enforcement in the aftermath of the horrific massacre was deemed helpful in the district attorney’s office investigation, enough to issue her a certification recognizing this contribution.
“Despite having told this to the Ice officials who made the decision to deport her based on a years old deportation order, Ice officials in El Paso chose to remove her from the US, leaving her unsupported in Juárez,” Hey said.
