Asylum seeker released and returns to new life and community in the Morongo Basin
After months in detention, an asylum seeker building a life in the Morongo Basin has been released on bond. Reporter Adeline J. Wells picks it up from here with an update on this still developing story.
After spending nearly eleven months in detention in Eloy, Arizona, Rocio Boheli Mokara was released on bond on Thursday (May 28) and returned to her home in Yucca Valley.
Rocio, as she will be referred to in this story, is a native of Equatorial Guinea who fled her country in May 2024 due to political persecution. She had been living with Yucca Valley resident Lori Portillo, putting down roots in the community, and navigating the legal asylum process when ICE detained her at a routine hearing in July 2025. A group of local women in the Morongo Basin has been organizing around Rocio’s case, assisting her in obtaining the necessary documents, contacting legal and political representatives, and filing an appeal of her asylum decision, which she is currently awaiting.
On March 9, exactly eight months after she was detained, Rocio filed a Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus with the United States District Court. The legal procedure allows individuals to challenge their detention as being unlawful. Rocio argued that her prolonged detention violated her right to due process and that it was causing her health to further deteriorate. Rocio also cited an August ruling by an immigration judge, who denied her bond due to a lack of jurisdiction, yet found her suitable for release and ruled that $3,500 would be a sufficient bond if jurisdiction existed.
A magistrate judge responded to Rocio’s petition with a Report and Recommendation that she either be granted a bond hearing, with the burden of proof on the prosecution to find her a flight risk, or be granted release upon payment of previously recommended bond. On May 14, District Judge Krissa Lanham ordered Rocio’s release upon payment of the $3,500. The Morongo Basin group secured Rocio’s bond through the National Bail Fund Network, a project of the Community Justice Exchange that works to fund pretrial and immigration bonds for community members across the country.
Portillo received word on Thursday (May 28) that Rocio was to be released from detention that day. In the early morning, officials took Rocio and others from Eloy to a church operating as a welcoming center. Those released had until 3 p.m. to arrange transportation; Rocio borrowed another individual’s phone and called for an Uber to a transit station, where she boarded a bus to Blythe, California.
Portillo’s sister, Denise Krebs, explained that she, Portillo, and fellow resident Deb Bollinger drove from the Morongo Basin and picked Rocio up from the bus station that evening.
“It was so exciting to see Rocio sitting at a little table at the bus station in Blythe. When we went up to her, she just hugged us and hugged us and couldn’t stop. She was so happy.”
Rocio’s release on bond is not without its restrictions. She is required to wear an ankle monitor while awaiting a decision on her asylum case appeal. However, Krebs asserts that optimism continues to guide both Rocio and the supportive network she continues to build in the Morongo Basin.
“She’s trying to make sure she’s following the rules with her monitor. We’re just celebrating her release every minute of every day, while also knowing that she’s going to face the judgment of the appeals court. But she’s hopeful and positive.”
