Judge orders immediate release from ICE detention of Mexican man who helped police investigate his daughter's shooting death

Jeff Gammage, The Philadelphia Inquirer on May 29, 2026

Published in News & Features

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PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge has ordered the immediate release of an undocumented Mexican man who was arrested and detained by ICE after he helped Berks County authorities investigate the fatal shooting of his daughter.

Erasmo Zavala Almanza, 51, must be freed to return to his home in Muhlenberg Township, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Haines ruled on Friday. Before being arrested and confined last month, Zavala Almanza had been a primary caretaker for his baby granddaughter, who survived the attack on her mother.

“Zavala Almanza has suffered irreparable harm in his unlawful detention since April 15, 2026,” the judge wrote in a decision on Friday. And his granddaughter, 2 months old when she was critically wounded, has been left “without a primary caretaker” due to his confinement, the judge wrote.

Zavala Almanza has been held at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Clearfield County, Pa., since ICE agents arrested him outside his home in Temple, Berks County.

Zavala Almanza helped Berks County authorities as they investigated the February 2025 killing of his daughter, Selena Zavala Hernandez, 20, and the wounding of her baby, Selene Zavala Hernandez.

The mother and child, both U.S. citizens, were attacked by the baby’s father, 31-year-old Jesus Peñaloza Cruz, who then shot and killed himself, police said.

The judge wrote on Friday that the public interest in having people step forward to help police investigate serious crimes “is weightier than the deportation of an illegal immigrant who has committed no violent crime, but has assisted in the investigation of one.”

The Berks County District Attorney’s Office certified Zavala Almanza to apply for a U visa, which if granted allows undocumented immigrants who assist the police to be placed on path to permanent residency in the United States.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which handles U visas, recently made a favorable decision for Zavala Almanza in its initial review. ICE continued to keep him in detention despite that finding.