After spending about two-and-a-half weeks in detention, a UC Berkeley student will be allowed to return to campus while his immigration case is pending.

Luis Mora spent about five minutes in front of Judge Ana Partida before she agreed to release him for the minimum possible bond — $1,500.

Eleven people there to support Mora crowded into one side of the small courtroom at Otay Mesa Detention Facility, where Mora was held. Among them were his girlfriend Jaleen Udarbe, several of her family members, advisers from Mora’s time at Southwestern College, and members of a church that Mora attended with his mother in Chula Vista.

An attorney for Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not oppose Mora’s attorney’s request for minimum bond.


“Good luck to you, sir,” Partida said to Mora in a matter-of-fact way before moving on to the next case on her docket.

A whisper of “Yes!” circulated the benches after the judge announced her decision.

Mora walked back to a bench where other detainees waited for their turn in front of the judge. He gave a quick smile to his supporters before sitting down.

A YouCaring fundraiser for Mora raised more than $14,500 by Wednesday morning. Mora’s attorney, Prerna Lal, said that Mora intends to use money left over after he pays bond to help others whom he met in the immigration detention facility.


Mora, 20, was arrested by Border Patrol on Dec. 30 at a checkpoint between Jamul and Dulzura on Campo Road after his girlfriend missed a turn on the way home around 10 p.m. from a party. Mora was in town for the holidays to see his girlfriend, and they stopped by the party to visit some of his friends from high school.

“Luis Mora was found in violation of his visa condition,” said Tekae Michael, a spokeswoman for Border Patrol in the San Diego sector.

Mora, who was born in Colombia and also has citizenship in Ecuador, came to San Diego on a tourist visa in 2011 with his mother. She enrolled him in school, and they stayed even after his visa expired, making him an unauthorized immigrant.

He graduated from Otay Ranch High School and attended Southwestern College before transferring to UC Berkeley.


Since he came to the country after 2007, he did not qualify for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, which gave certain unauthorized immigrants who came to the U.S. as children temporary protection from deportation.

Sally Ramirez, who attended Mora’s bond hearing, said she met Mora about seven years ago at Mater Dei Catholic Parish in Chula Vista.

She said Mora’s desire to help others in the detention facility with money raised for him reflects a community service mentality that his mother passed on to him.

“He’s a great kid with a great heart,” Ramirez said.


Lal and Udarbe left the facility together to pay Mora’s bond downtown. They hoped that he would be released by Wednesday evening.


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