Communities to hold vigils for deported Soldotna family

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, February 24, 2026

The arrest and deportation of a Soldotna mother and her three children last week by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency have sparked community outcry across the state.

The Anchorage Daily News reported Tuesday, Feb. 17, that Sonia Espinoza Arriaga and her three children, ages 18, 16 and 5, were arrested that day and taken to Anchorage. Arriaga, who is from Mexico and came to Alaska in 2023 seeking asylum, is married to Alexander Sanchez-Ramos, a U.S. citizen and Alaska resident born in Seward. Neither she nor any of her children have criminal records.

A Feb. 19 press release from the Alaska House Majority Coalition stated that Arriaga had been in civil immigration proceedings after declaring herself and her children at the border upon entering the U.S. in 2023. ADN also reported that Arriaga missed an immigration hearing in January, understanding it to be scheduled for June, which put her in line for deportation.

Reverend Michael Burke, rector and senior pastor at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Anchorage, was one of several church leaders from the Alaska Christian Conference — a statewide network of faith leaders representing numerous denominations, for which Burke serves as president — who organized an emergency press conference last Tuesday afternoon to break the story to the media and alert Alaskans to what they “believe to be a grave moral crisis in America today.”

“We were told publicly that the policy was to arrest the worst of the worst — murderers and rapists, we were told — and yet here we are, the arrest of a 5-year-old kindergartener and detention of a family with no known criminal history,” he said in an interview last Thursday. “How can this be the case in America today? Is this the best way that we can enforce our nation’s laws?”

Burke wrote in an email to Homer News that the day after they were taken into custody, Arriaga and her two minor children were removed from Alaska and flown to San Diego, where they were “immediately” transported across the Mexico-United State border to a federal processing center in Tijuana. He also said that this case is the first instance in which young children have been taken into ICE custody in the state.

Additional reporting by the ADN says that Arriaga’s 18-year-old son, who was not deported to Mexico with his family but remained in custody at the Anchorage jail, was transferred on Friday to an ICE detention facility in Tacoma, Washington.

“It is not our intent to take issue with any particular immigration laws — we do believe the immigration laws of the nation should be enforced, but this is not the kind of enforcement that is keeping with a long history of the American respect of rule and law and basic decency and integrity,” Burke said. “It undermines and erodes public confidence in the rule of law and federal officers as agents of that law, and pits the community against one another.

“We think that this could have been handled in any number of other ways, and we are outraged that armed federal officers in full tactical gear confronted and took a family away from our very midst … we as clergy felt a moral obligation to call the attention of the community to this.”

Lara Nations, an immigration attorney representing Arriaga and her children, said last Thursday that she had filed a habeas corpus petition on Feb. 17 that “is still pending.” A motion to reopen Arriaga’s immigration court proceedings is also pending.

Representatives from ICE have not responded to a request for comment by Homer News as of press time.

Alaska legislators reacted to the family’s arrest and deportation last week and brought the matter to the attention of Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, during his annual address to a joint session of the House and Senate.

“As Senator Sullivan told Rep. Alyse Galvin after his speech to the Legislature yesterday, he is looking into the matter and he and his team have contacted senior level officials at the Department of Homeland Security to gather all of the facts regarding the situation,” Devyn Shea, Sullivan’s press secretary, wrote in an email to the Homer News on Feb. 19.

Joe Plesha, communication director for Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, wrote in an email on Friday that Murkowski is aware of the situation and her office is actively reaching out to DHS to gather more information about the case.

“The administration has repeatedly stated that its enforcement strategy is focused on targeting individuals with violent criminal records — a goal Senator Murkowski and many Americans support. However, based on what is currently known, it does not appear that this mother or her three children pose a danger to their community,” he wrote. “As the debate around ICE reform continues to take shape, Senator Murkowski remains focused on ensuring that due process is upheld for everyone under the law.”

The Alaska House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the detainment of minors in Alaska by ICE on Monday. A vigil for the family was held in Anchorage Monday evening.

A vigil will be held in Homer on Wednesday, Feb. 25 from 11 a.m. to noon in front of the Homer United Methodist Church, 770 East End Road. This event is organized by the Homer United Methodist Church Civic Engagement Group.

Marcia Kuszmaul, one of the lead organizers of Wednesday’s vigil, said it was timed to occur in solidarity with the “Faithful Resistance” event, a national vigil being held in Washington, D.C., which includes a peaceful procession to the U.S. Capitol building at 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.

The national “Faithful Resistance” event will be livestreamed starting at 9:45 a.m. EST.

“The theme of our (local) vigil is faithful resistance, seeking justice for immigrants and the humane treatment of immigrants, their rights to due process,” Kuszmaul said. “We have had an incident on the Kenai (Peninsula) and we wanted to focus on support for that family. We want to acknowledge what’s going on locally, what’s going on statewide, and support the national event.”

Kuszmaul encouraged people who are concerned about the treatment of immigrants to attend Wednesday’s vigil, which will include opening remarks and prayer led by by HUMC Rev. Blake Langston, provide opportunity for testimony by people who have witnessed injustice toward immigrants, and include a call to action. According to an event flyer, the focus will be “prayerful advocacy” for Arriaga and her children.

“This is a positive, nonviolent expression of our concern for our neighbors,” Kuszmaul said.

Another vigil in support of Arriaga and her family will be held at Soldotna Creek Park on Sunday, March 1 at 7 p.m. This event is organized by Many Voices Alaska, Rev. Meredith Harber with Christ Lutheran Church in Soldotna, and retired pastor Karen Martin-Tichenor, who previously served at the Soldotna United Methodist Church. The community is welcomed to attend; find more information on the event Facebook page.