'Unofficial Mayor of Conway' Still in ICE Custody Months After Detention: Release Stuck on a Background Check, Next Hearing November 5

Juan Alatorre Martinez, a gas-station worker known in Conway, Washington, as the town's 'unofficial mayor,' remains in ICE custody at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma months after agents detained him outside the Super Duper Foods store in July. He had hoped to walk free after an October 8 hearing, but his release is still waiting on a background check officials must complete before a judge can approve it, and his lawyer is also seeking approval of his green card. His next hearing is scheduled for November 5, and U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen is pressing federal officials to act.

Awaaz Punjab Investigations Desk23 October 20264 min readRead in all 3 languages

Juan Alatorre Martinez, a gas-station worker known in the small Skagit County town of Conway, Washington, as its 'unofficial mayor,' remains in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody months after agents detained him in July outside the Super Duper Foods store where he worked, the Seattle Focal reported on Friday, October 23, 2026. Community members have rallied behind Martinez, and U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen has taken up his case while Martinez awaits another court hearing, scheduled for November 5.

Martinez had hoped to be released after a hearing on October 8 and to have his status adjusted to permanent legal residence. Instead, his release is still pending a background check that immigration officials must complete before a judge can approve it, according to information provided about his case. His lawyer, Lisa Seifert, is also seeking approval of his green card before he is released. Reporting by the La Conner Community News on the October 8 hearing, held in a small courtroom inside the for-profit Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, said the hold-up appeared to be incomplete biometrics requirements — fingerprints, photographs and background checks. Seifert said ICE staff took Martinez to a biometrics appointment on September 10, but she had not known there was another request that also had to be submitted to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for that agency to do its part.

'I'm super disappointed that this wasn't finished today, because obviously, Juan did everything he needed to do. He looked disappointed, too,' Seifert said after the October 8 hearing, according to the La Conner Community News.

The Department of Homeland Security has said agents detained Martinez because of two prior arrests on his record. Martinez and his attorney say, according to their account, that agents took the wrong person: Martinez recalled agents telling him, 'I'm sorry it's not you who we are looking for, but you're here. So we will take you.' That account is Martinez's version of the encounter and has not been confirmed by ICE. ICE referred questions about the background check to the Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review, which had not responded to a request for comment as of October 22.

Larsen, the Democratic congressman whose district includes Conway, has said he will continue pressing federal authorities over the case. 'I will keep fighting to cement humanity into U.S. immigration policy and to make sure ICE follows the same rules as every other law enforcement agency,' Larsen said in a statement reported by the Seattle Focal. For Conway's Punjabi and other immigrant neighbours up and down the I-5 corridor in Skagit County, the case has become a closely watched test of how a paperwork delay — a missing biometrics request — can keep a long-settled local worker in detention for months after a judge's process has otherwise moved towards release. (Sources: The Seattle Focal, October 23, 2026; La Conner Community News, October 15, 2026.)