Rideshare driver detained at Camp Pendleton gate after waiting 7 years in immigration backlog

Another rideshare driver with a pending asylum claim was detained while trying to pick up a passenger at Camp Pendleton on Saturday, according to his attorney and friends.

They say they’re frustrated and confused as to why when he has work authorization, no criminal history and waited nearly seven years for an interview as his case made its way through the backlogged immigration system.

“Rafael is smart, funny, sarcastic, super hard-working,” his friend Cameron Jones said. They met doing gig work, Jones said, as Rafael did rideshare and delivery driving while he searched for a job in his field of engineering. “He’s a great guy. He’s very considerate. He’s kind of always there for you whenever you need him.”

Rafael is originally from Brazil and came to the U.S. in 2019, his lawyer said. NBC 7 is not sharing Rafael’s last name for his safety.

“It was definitely not a question of arriving at the southern border,” immigration attorney Nicole Wesley said. “He came in on a regular aircraft with a regular visa.”

Rafael filed for asylum shortly thereafter, she said, fearing political persecution and violence if he were to return to Brazil.

“For folks like him, there’s both online badgering, which can get very aggressive, and then there’s actually physical beatings for people in his particular protected group,” Wesley said.

She said he then waited nearly seven years for an interview with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in his case, which finally came on Feb. 3 this year.

“We left the interview feeling really good. Mission accomplished, so to speak. And he went on waiting like immigration had instructed,” Wesley said.

But the Trump administration in December ordered a pause on all asylum decisions, leaving Rafael in an indefinite limbo, Wesley said. A coalition of advocacy groups this week filed a federal lawsuit challenging that pause. The memo ordering it said more guidance would come within 90 days, which came and went this week.

“It’s sort of brutally unfair,” Wesley said. “You’re putting the USCIS officers through all the motions, all the time-consuming motions until they get to the very end, but you’re not allowing them to cross the finish line.”

Rafael still had employment authorization as he waited for a decision and was working as a rideshare driver Saturday when he was called for a pickup at Camp Pendleton, Wesley said. He went to the Cristianitos Gate at the northern part of the base, where he was stopped at the gate and detained by ICE.

“He’s not doing anything nefarious. He’s simply working,” said Jones, who went to pick up Rafael’s car from the base after his arrest.

Jones said he’s also driven for rideshare companies, doing drop-offs at Camp Pendleton, but never allowed onto the base for pick-ups.

“Anytime that you get a request from outside of the gate, unless you have somebody who is military present in your car, they tell you to back your car up,” Jones said, questioning why Rafael was allowed in at all.

ICE did not respond to request for comment on Rafael’s case but a spokesperson for Camp Pendleton said the safety of those who live and work on the base is “a top priority.”

“Individuals seeking entry must have approved credentials and a valid reason to access the base,” Camp Pendleton’s statement reads. “Coordination with other law enforcement agencies is not new.”

“The presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel at select locations supports installation-level force protection by improving visibility, coordination, and response times at access points,” the statement continued. “This effort is focused on deterring unauthorized access and enhancing security and is not intended to conduct broad immigration enforcement on the installation.”

Jones said when he arrived to pick up Rafael’s car, they indicated he was not the only one who had been detained.

“When I was asking about, ‘Hey, where are the keys to this car?’ They specifically said, ‘OK, was it the Venezuelan guy or was it the Chinese guy or was it the Yemeni guy?'” Jones recalled.

His arrest came nearly three weeks after another rideshare driver was detained while dropping a passenger at Camp Pendleton. Rafael is now at the Otay Mesa Detention Center, with a hearing in his case scheduled for March 12.

A rideshare driver was detained while dropping a passenger at Camp Pendleton. The man has a doctorate degree and no criminal history. NBC 7’s Shelby Bremer spoke with his sister about the situation.

“It was a shock because this wasn’t supposed to happen to somebody like him,” Wesley said. “It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way for somebody who had followed the rules and filed the applications and paid the fees and showed up for all their appointments, still has valid work authorization, checked all the boxes. It wasn’t supposed to end up in detention before he got a decision.”

Wesley said they basically have to start his immigration process all over again.

“USCIS, when they’re doing these interviews, they take notes, they do background checks. They have a lot of work that they’ve done,” she said. “So most of that work is now being set aside and we go back to the beginning in immigration court.”

She said she’s hoping he’ll be released on bond at his upcoming hearing, but if he is and then placed on the non-detained immigration court docket, it could add two to three more years to his wait as the courts face a significant backlog.

“The system isn’t that easy and certainly not that fast, and one could argue, maybe not as fair as people might think it is,” Wesley said. “This, I think, is a beautiful example of maybe a divergence between what people imagine the system to be and what it really is.”

Jones said he and Rafael’s friends are all scared for him and don’t understand why this happened.  

“What are we doing?” Jones asked. “He’s not taking from any programs. He’s just working his butt off, just doing what he’s supposed to do on some American dream.”

“It’s depressing. It’s heartbreaking because if you knew Rafael, you would be like – he’s probably terrified. I mean, I think anybody would be terrified,” he continued, adding, “The ‘worst of the worst’ is like, what? No, no. He’s the best of the best.”