Donald Trump said it would only be violent criminals. So why was a middle school science teacher deported in Florida? Why were a mother and two young children arrested and deported in Arizona? ICE agents deported an innocent Mother of four with her 6-year-old girl and 9-year-old boy. Her sister-in-law was at home with the other two children; ages 8 and 14.
Yesenia and her children were pulled over by Arizona police claiming she was stopped for driving under the speed limit. The traffic stop occurred shortly after a woman had verbally attacked her as she and her kids were selling empanadas outside a local gas station—something she did regularly to support her family. Yesenia believes the woman called police after she shouted at her and questioned her immigration status.
At the time, she was worried the woman might report her to the authorities, so Yesenia and her two young children loaded their supplies into the back of their vehicle and left immediately after the confrontation.
Shortly after leaving the gas station, Yesenia was pulled over by Arizona police. An officer approached the vehicle and informed her she had been stopped for driving under the speed limit. She gave the officer the ID she had been given at an immigration shelter in Chicago. The officer called it “fake,” accusing her of presenting false ID telling her she could be charged with a crime.
After she was asked to exit the vehicle, the same officer told Yesenia she could be sentenced to 5 years in prison for a false ID charge.
As she and her two young children stood outside with the officers, waiting for border patrol agents to arrive, one of the officers asked her sobbing 6-year-old daughter, “Is your father a gang member?” “Does he have a gun?”
Yesenia asked them to stop by her house so she could tell her 8 and 14-year-old where she was going, but they refused. She begged them to at least allow her to call them. They responded, “No. That’s not our problem. That’s your problem.”
When border patrol agents arrived, Yesenia said they handcuffed her right in front of her children.
In CBP custody, border patrol agents threatened her, suggesting they might be sent to Guantanamo Bay.
During the time they were detained, Yesenia continued to plead with them to let her call home, knowing her husband and two children must be worried, not knowing why they never came home that night.
She got the same response every time she asked for help with anything throughout the ordeal. “That’s not our problem.”
Once Yesenia knew they were about to be deported, she begged them not to send her and the kids back to Venezuela. She was told they weren’t going to Venezuela, they were taking her to Mexico. When she informed them she had been targeted by a Mexican drug cartel in the past, they didn’t care.
From the Arizona Luminaria:
On Friday, February 14th, Yesenia was finally able to call home.
Yesenia says she made the call from Villahermosa, the capital of the southern Mexican state of Tabasco, about 2,000 miles away.
She says she and her two children were deported early Wednesday morning. They were handed over to Mexican immigration officials in Nogales, Sonora, then, hours later were put on another bus — a ride that lasted two full days — until they finally arrived in Villahermosa.
Yesenia and her family are in shock.
“I’m scared, of course I’m scared. My children are terrified. I don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s so unjust,” Yesenia said in a Feb. 15 phone call with Arizona Luminaria.
We stand in solidarity with those affected by the mass deportation agenda, particularly those like Yesenia, who are victims of an order being carried out by Tom Homan on behalf of President Trump. It is disrupting the lives of countless families, causing pain and trauma.
Illegally Innocent
ICE agents deported an innocent mother and young children, but this isn’t the only example of ICE agents targeting migrants who hadn’t committed any crimes. More stories have been coming out thanks to the reporting of journalists who aren’t afraid of the Trump Administration or threats from Tom Homan.
ICE agents have been grabbing people as they’re showing up for check-ins—a practice required by immigration law as migrants await their asylum hearings.
ICE officials have called people to tell them they need to come in, and then they are arrested when they arrive.
They are targeting immigrants who aren’t criminals. They are following the law and doing what’s required of them by showing up for mandatory check-ins.
They’re even detaining people as they show up for their scheduled asylum hearing.
Note: The bipartisan border bill Trump killed during the Biden Administration would have added more immigration judges to expedite asylum hearings. The Trump Administration recently fired 20 immigration judges.
Retribution, Revenge, and Political Prosecutions, Oh My!
Donald Trump and the Republicans don’t want to fix our immigration system, they want to destroy it. They would prefer to close the border to migrants permanently—Unless they’re White, of course.
Closing the border isn’t legal or constitutional, but President Trump, Elon Musk, and VP Vance have been suggesting in recent posts on social media that they don’t have to listen to the courts.
Republicans and Tom Homan are now threatening people who say or do anything they don’t like.
Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) suggested Bishop Budde be deported after her sermon asking Trump to show mercy on people in America who are afraid. She was born in America, but that doesn’t matter.
Republicans are threatening to use deportation as punishment for anyone who disagrees with them.
There will be consequences
By causing fear among the immigrant population, child abuse cases will rise as people are afraid to report incidents to the authorities out of fear of being deported.
Evil people will commit crimes against immigrants, rape immigrant women, knowing they won’t report it to police.
Parents of sick kids won’t take them for medical care out of fear of being detained at the hospital.
Causing fear among a vulnerable group in America will have a ripple effect that touches all of us in some way. The same way mass deportation will affect our food supply and economy. Immigrants pick our fruits and vegetables, work in meat packing plants, and paid $39 billion in taxes over the years.
ICE agents deported an innocent mother and two of her children. There’s no limit to their cruelty or their indifference to pleas for mercy and the tears of a child.
This isn’t America.
We must push back against the cruelty being shown to people who did nothing to deserve it. When did hope and the dream of a better life become a federal crime?
Read Next: The Ripple Effects of Mass Deportation: Americans Will Suffer, where I highlight the effects this will have on the American people.