Turkish immigrant summoned to ICE office in San Diego fears deportation

A San Diego pedal boat driver who fled Turkey after being tortured for his religious beliefs is the latest among hundreds of people to be arrested across California during routine immigration checks, according to advocates, his lawyers and his wife.

Idris Demirtas, 25, sought asylum in El Paso in December 2022 and was legally released to the United States that same month. He was issued a five-year work permit. A biomedical student in Turkey, Demirtaş has no criminal record in his home country or in the United States, according to his wife and lawyers.

“He’s the nicest, kindest, nicest person. Everyone who meets him loves him. He’s very family-oriented and a fair person,” said his wife, May Bovenzi, who was born and raised in San Diego.

His lawyers and Bovenzi said Demirtaş has scars on his body from physical abuse he suffered in Turkey because he is not a member of the Muslim faith.

“He never told me everything exactly what happened, but he has scars all over his body,” Bovenzi said.

In 2023, the US State Department issued a statement of findings in Turkey, “significant human rights concerns include credible reports of: enforced disappearance; torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by or on behalf of the government.”

The United States during the second the Trump administration deports people to countries that in the past were mostly off-limits, like Iran. In the past, authorities have been forced to either detain these immigrants indefinitely or release them into the United States. This means that immigrant communities from countries that previously did not have to worry about deportation now have a new reason to worry.

A review of the ICE Flight Monitor, held at Human Rights First, shows zero deportation flights to Turkey between January 2025 and October 2025.

In April 2022, Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported the deportation of a Turkish citizen who was said to be suspected of providing support to terrorist organizations in Istanbul. the agency reported deported five Turks in 2024 of the federal budget.

Arrests in immigration court are increasing

Federal immigration agents arrested Demirtas in San Diego last Thursday at the Edward Schwartz federal courthouse, where he was responding to a summons letter he received Nov. 19 ordering him to report for registration at 8 a.m. the next morning. With less than 16 hours’ notice, Demirtas and his wife decided he would go to the check-in because he was trying to obey the law, his wife said. Bovenzi said he has barely been able to eat since the couple received the summons.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to a request for comment on why Dimitras was arrested or why he is still being held. He is currently being held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center, operated by the prison company CoreCivic, according to a federal detainee locator database.

ICE check-in detentions have increased in California since early October in cities such as San Diego, Fresno and Stockton, according to news reports and advocacy groups. President Donald Trump issued an executive order in the early hours of his second term, reversing a previous Biden-era ban on arresting immigrants in sensitive locations, including courthouses, schools and churches.

In October, activists from an organization called Detention Resistance documented more than 100 arrests at ICE check-in sites on the second floor of the federal building in San Diego.

Some politicians, advocates and lawyers argue that arrests at ICE check-ins violate people’s due process rights by creating a Catch-22 for immigrants: If they go to their appointments, they could be detained for months and potentially deported. But if they don’t show up for a scheduled placement or summons, ICE can issue a formal deportation order against them, effectively guaranteeing their arrest and deportation.

US Senator Alex Padilla visited the immigration court in San Diego in September and likened it to a “trap.”

“I think they’re getting exactly what they want, which is actually forcing people to make a really tough decision,” said one of Demirtas’ lawyers, Tessa Cabrera. “You’re detaining someone, separating them from their family and their resources, their ability to earn money and support their families … I think a lot of people are going to say, ‘I don’t want to deal with this,’ and they’re just going to give up.”

Conditions of detention

Demirtas told his wife during a Sunday visit to the Otay detention center that he was first held for 11 hours in the crowded basement of the federal courthouse downtown without access to food or water. He could hear babies crying throughout the night, according to his wife, Bovenzi. ICE did not respond to a question about whether or not babies are being kept in the basement of the federal building.

After being transferred to Otay, Demirtas told his wife that he slept on the floor because of overcrowding.

“He was now provided with food, but none of it was wholesome nutritious food,

the water is dirty and he has no bed, just a mat on the floor,” one of his lawyers wrote on his behalf, according to a draft court document.

Ryan Gustin, a spokesman for CoreCivic, said everyone at the facility has a bed.

“Any allegation of water quality issues is patently false,” he said. The Otay Mesa Detention Center “receives the same clean drinking water that local utilities supply to the surrounding community. The staff at our facility drink the same water as those in our care.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Demirtas’ case.

At the end of July KPBS reported the Otay Mesa Detention Center has housed more than 100 people over its contracted capacity of 1,358 detainees, citing report from Syracuse University. Nationally, the number of detainees also increased, with more than 65,000 people detained – a record high.

In the forty days between Oct. 1 and Nov. 10, the Otay Mesa detention center held an average of 1,456 people a day, about 98 people above its contracted capacity, according to ICE data and the website Detention reportswhich shows the fluctuations of the detainee population over time at each ICE facility.

It’s nearly impossible to tell from the data how many of those arrests occurred during court hearings or immigration court checks, but mathematician Joseph Gunter identified 2,388 cases nationwide people (including 76 children) who were likely arrested in immigration courts in May, June, and July 2025. His research paper identified 141 confirmed and probable arrests in San Diego federal court, the fourth highest in the nation. Gunter noted that the actual number of arrests is likely higher.

Bovenzi said her husband has already paid more than $2,000 in immigration filing fees. Now the family is scrambling to raise another $5,000 for potential habeas petition.

Lawyers have increasingly used these federal lawsuits during the second Trump administration to end what they say are illegal detentions of their immigration clients.