VENICE, Fla. — An honor student brought to the U.S. from Mexico as a child is now at risk of deportation. Her family held a news conference on Saturday pleading for her release from ICE custody.

Maria “Lulu” Martinez moved to the U.S. with her family when she was 12 years old.

“Ever since I brought my family, I brought ‘LuLu.’ She has really worked hard to move forward to learn English and to improve herself and work very hard here,” Sandro Martinez, Maria’s father said.

Her family said Lulu didn’t let being undocumented stop her from chasing her dreams, but now, everything is on hold as she sits in an ICE detention center in Texas.

“I know that my daughter is not the only one going through this difficult time, but she is not a criminal, she does not deserve to be there,” Lourdes Martinez, Maria’s mother said.

Maria was pulled over for making an illegal U-turn. Local police discovered she was driving without a license and shared her undocumented status with ICE. Her friend, Cynthia Torres, says these past couple of weeks have been mind-blowing.

“For me, it’s unfair that you don’t have a chance as a person, as a human being, to gather everything. She just gets kidnapped, taken away from her family, from her life with no heads up,” Torres said.

Martinez’s family said they have legal counsel, and they have requested a hearing to see if she is entitled to bond. That hearing could take up to two to three weeks.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Florida is leading the nation in active cooperation with the Trump administration for immigration enforcement and deportation operations.

“We’re sorry that this young woman needs to be deported, but she does, and that’s on her parents for coming here illegally in 2015,” Rod Thompson with the Republican Party of Sarasota County said.

Local immigration advocates said this case is just one reason to push for change.

“We call on our elected officials to end family separation. We call on our elected officials to stop raids,” Sarasota pastor Lillie Brock said.

Right now, there are around 50,000 immigrant detainees in detention facilities across the U.S. White House officials are pushing for a minimum of 3,000 arrests a day.

10 Tampa Bay’s Chris Hurst contributed to this report.