PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) – A Gresham family detained by federal agents outside a southeast Portland ER last month and then transferred to Texas have returned home, according to Congresswoman Maxine Dexter.
On Friday, Dexter announced that the Crespo-Gonzalez family had been released from the immigrant family detention center in Dilley, Texas, following her attempts to visit them in custody, and they would be returning to Portland with her.
The Crespo-Gonzalez family was arrested on Jan. 16 outside Adventist Health.
Friends of the family said the family was taking their 7-year-old daughter to urgent care for a nosebleed that wouldn’t stop. But before they went in to see a doctor, Border Patrol agents took the family into custody outside the hospital.
When FOX 12 contacted DHS about the family’s detention, a spokesperson said the family had entered the US “illegally” in 2024 through the CBP app and were released into the country by the Biden administration. That app was a government authorized method for asylum seekers to schedule asylum appointments in the US, but discontinued in January 2025 by the Trump administration.
When Rep. Dexter said she tried to visit the family on Thursday at the South Texas Family Residential Center where they were being held, she was refused entry, “despite providing sufficient notice.”
“DHS has something to hide. They know that if Americans could see what is happening inside this facility, the policy of imprisoning children and families would collapse overnight,” Dexter said. “They blocked me today because they do not want accountability. But they picked the wrong person. I will come back. My colleagues will come back. And we will keep showing up again and again until the American people know exactly what is being done to children with their tax dollars.”
FOX 12 reached out to DHS for comment and has not yet heard back.
Also on Thursday, Dexter said she planned to return and try to visit the center on Friday. However, on Friday, the Democratic congresswoman announced that the Crespo-Gonzalez family had been released from custody and would be returning home with her.
Dexter has not yet said if she was able to enter the facility on Friday.
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