‘Inhumane’: Trump’s mass deportations ensnare noncriminal immigrants from all walks of life

By LEE ANN ANDERSON and LORENZO GOMEZ News JACKSONVILLE Fla AP When Juan and Madison Pestana went on their first date in Juan vowed to perpetually keep a bouquet of fresh flowers on the kitchen table For nearly two years he did exactly that Their love story was a whirlwind She was an introverted diagnostic trainee who grew up in Wendell North Carolina and he was a charismatic construction business owner from Caracas Venezuela When they first met at a sushi bar Madison didn t expect much That changed when she located herself in her car at a m still talking the night away He is literally my best friend and the only person I ve ever thought truly understood me as a person she disclosed He truly is the love of my life This image provided by News shows Madison Pestana holding an iPad showing a photo of her and husband Juan Pestana on Monday June at their home in Jacksonville Fla Lee Ann Anderson News via AP This image provided by News shows Madison Pestana as she video chats with her husband Juan on Monday June in Neptune Beach Fla Lorenzo Gomez News via AP Show Caption of This image provided by News shows Madison Pestana holding an iPad showing a photo of her and husband Juan Pestana on Monday June at their home in Jacksonville Fla Lee Ann Anderson News via AP Expand Since that first date the Pestanas hadn t spent more than six days apart until immigration agents manifested up outside their Miami apartment On May the day of Madison s graduation from clinical school Juan was taken into custody despite having no criminal record Madison stated he was tackled to the ground a sight so jarring she announced that a neighbor called the front office to account a probable kidnapping That shouldn t be the word that people are using when proper law enforcement is taking people into proper custody Madison noted Juan has been in detention ever since Immigration agents say he is in the country unlawfully His wife an American citizen says he unknowingly overstayed his visa after the couple used an unscrupulous notary to file his green card application Madison has since moved on her own to Jacksonville where she started a surgical residency in July She lives alone works -hour weeks and drives more than miles to and from a detention center in Broward County every weekend to visit her husband They re not allowed to embrace more than twice during each visit I am living my worst nightmare Madison revealed adding what she believes Americans need to know What s happening right now is not justice This is just inhumane Madison acknowledges that she once was a supporter of President Donald Trump enticed by the idea he would remove criminals from the country Now she explained I feel lied to What was promised was that we were going to make things safer for people Do you think they re making my life safer she noted My life is immensely more dangerous now that you ve taken my husband from me All immigrants are being heavily scrutinized On the campaign trail Trump indeed promised safety and measure He promised that changes to immigration protocol would target criminals His campaign he noted was intended to rid the country of people he has called murderers terrorists drug dealers animals - the worst they have in every country all over the world When he won a second term as president specific of his supporters were immigrants themselves In contemporary times specific people are being held in immigration detention a increase since January according to the nonprofit Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse About of those detained have no criminal record TRAC says Multiple others have convictions for offenses as minor as a traffic violation Even though a lot of the rhetoric was Let s get the criminals out of the U S - that s not authentically what s happening commented New York immigration lawyer Pouyan Darian What s happening is all immigrants are being heavily scrutinized The outcome advocates argue is an unprecedented attack on immigrants from all walks of life and living in the U S under all kinds of circumstances The administration has terminated Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of people who fled dictatorships and disasters in their home countries and were legally welcomed into the U S A few of these settlers - who face the loss of work visas and eventual deportation - have lived in the country for decades and have citizen spouses or children Before courts issued an injunction Trump administrators revoked hundreds of visas for immigrant students over noncriminal protest pursuits previously dismissed misdemeanors and even traffic tickets Trump issued an executive order denying citizenship to anyone born on American soil to women either in the country illegally or here legally under a visa if the father is not a U S citizen or green card holder That order is on hold for now due to legal challenges The administration also wants to vastly expand its power to denaturalize those who have become U S citizens and give the Department of Justice discretion to pursue cases as it determines appropriate Related Articles Judge blocks Trump administration from forthwith deporting Guatemalan migrant children CU Regent Wanda James takes on Diana DeGette announcing bid to unseat Denver s long-serving congresswoman South Park delays new episode but not because of Charlie Kirk Trump ICE target police in Chicago other cities including Denver for recruitment in NFL ad Senate Democrats raise concerns over Pentagon plan to use military lawyers as immigration judges For immigrant communities across the country the conclusion is a situation of fear where even legal compliance offers no guarantee of protection In one example Harvard University cancer researcher Kseniia Petrova a Russian citizen was apprehended in February at Boston Logan International Airport after she failed to declare frog embryos she d brought into the country for research Although a fine and forfeiture of the undeclared item is a typical penalty in such cases the establishment canceled Petrova s visa and held her in detention for four months She has since been indicted on smuggling charges and is out on bail as the circumstance proceeds In another matter -year-old Guatemalan Ernesto Manuel-Andres was detained just weeks after his high school graduation during a June raid at his apartment complex in Bowling Green Kentucky According to Luma Mufleh founder of the educational nonprofit Fugees Family Manuel-Andres is in the U S under special immigrant juvenile status which is granted to children who have been abused neglected or abandoned Beginning in immigrants with that status were protected from deportation until a visa became available On June the Trump administration rescinded that protection During his days of detention Manuel-Andres was transferred to three different facilities in two states He was published June on bond and his circumstance is still pending I feel like they re testing the limits of the law - they re trying to see who they can take in Mufleh declared And I m like You re going after kids That s who we re going after now She described Manuel-Andres as someone who invariably does the right thing without anyone asking him to do it He s someone you want on your organization There have been other instances too Wualner Sauceda a middle school trainer in Hialeah Florida was deported to Honduras after being detained at a regular immigration check-in as he explored a legal pathway to stay in the country Cliona Ward a green card holder from Ireland who has lived for years in Santa Cruz California was detained for more than two weeks over old drug possession charges that had been expunged She has since been circulated Such arrests have become less predictable with individuals being detained at court hearings or scheduled Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-ins This really just forces people into the shadows - that is what the consequence is of these policies commented Laila Ayub an immigration attorney and co-founder of Project ANAR an Afghan immigration justice organization It s very clear that the goal is to make things harder to discourage people from coming here and to increase fear in our communities My father deserves to be here This image provided by News shows the Ambrocio children posing for a portrait Sunday June in Wimauma Fla From left are Ashley Esdras Reily Adbeem and Derlin Their father Maurilio Amizael Ambrocio was detained in April after a decade of regular immigration check-ins He has since self-deported to Guatemala Lorenzo Gomez News via AP This image provided by News shows members of Iglesia de Santidad Vida Nueva attending system on Sunday June in Wimauma Fla Photo by Lee Ann Anderson News Show Caption of This image provided by News shows the Ambrocio children posing for a portrait Sunday June in Wimauma Fla From left are Ashley Esdras Reily Adbeem and Derlin Their father Maurilio Amizael Ambrocio was detained in April after a decade of regular immigration check-ins He has since self-deported to Guatemala Lorenzo Gomez News via AP Expand In the small Florida town of Wimauma southeast of Tampa the Ambrocio family is reeling from the ramifications of the administration s policies Maurilio Amizael Ambrocio the family s patriarch is an evangelical Christian pastor who since had led the small congregation of Iglesia de Santidad Vida Nueva a tight-knit group bound by shared experiences of immigration and custom He s not only our father but he s also our pastor a spiritual leader for us noted his daughter Ashley one of Ambrocio s five children who range in age from to and are all American citizens Ambrocio and his faith offered numerous the missing piece for which they were searching in their lives He supported and helped me move forward declared Jennifer Dominguez a -year-old from Mexico who has attended Ambrocio s church for about four years There was a time I didn t want to live and he helped me through it At Ambrocio left everything he knew to escape a gang trying to recruit young boys in his hometown of Cuilco Guatemala He initially entered the U S illegally via the Arizona-Mexico frontier While in the country he d work odd jobs to get by He was deported in but returned to the U S later that year And although he was under an immigration removal order - issued after he was cited for driving without a license - he had a stay that had allowed him to remain in the country his family stated For nearly years Ambrocio regularly attended ICE check-ins without a dilemma That all changed in April when he was detained at one of those appointments while Ashley her brother Derlin and a fellow pastor waited outside An immigration agent called the family back and explained Ambrocio would be held for hours Ashley announced In that time Ambrocio was taken to Glades County Detention Center I was really really scared Ashley disclosed I don t know how the process is I was like What if he gets deported right there Ashley remembers the change in her mother upon hearing the news She looked just lonely Her eyes were just different like if they took something away from her - and they did Weeks went by and on June the family got a call that planted a seed of hope Ambrocio mistakenly supposed he would be distributed while the immigration process played out Instead he was transferred to a staging facility in Louisiana A limited days later wanting to escape long-term detention Ambrocio chose to self deport On July he was on a plane back to Guatemala He has been preaching at churches near his hometown of Cuilco and wants to open a tortilla business to keep himself afloat Ashley and Derlin have since gone to Guatemala to visit their father When they got off the plane they ran to him and embraced the tears flowing They brought him clothing family photos a drawing from one of his congregants and a Bible and together they spent time seeing places their father hadn t seen since he was a boy It felt so nice seeing him act like a child getting excited seeing everything and taking pictures Ashley revealed It brings us comfort knowing he s not suffering in detention He s doing better When Ashley turns next July she announced she will try to sponsor her father s return to the United States In the meantime she her mother and her four brothers are left to go on without him The family spends their Saturdays preparing for Sunday church services another pastor fills in for Ambrocio in his absence And day and night Ashley s mother prays for her husband to be back in her arms My father deserves to be here Ashley declared Coming here for a better future isn t a crime A world on fire This image provided by News shows families embracing outside Broward Transitional Center on Saturday June in Pompano Fla The detention center houses up to inmates including Juan Pestana of Venezuela Lorenzo Gomez News via AP Juan Pestana also had hopes of a better future when he came to the U S in He filed for asylum obtained a work permit and launched a construction business - designing and building fences and pergolas He and Madison met two years later Within five weeks they were engaged Three months after their first date they were married Never did I have any doubts about it Madison stated of their swift courtship We didn t even apply for a green card through marriage until way later That s when they got into trouble she declared Last fall the couple decided to submit paperwork to get Juan his green card They hired the same person who had filed Juan s asylum paperwork paying about But in April Madison learned the application had been denied because it was completed incorrectly She refiled everything on her own Juan nevertheless was detained the next month Countless detainees like Juan were in the middle of adjusting their status caught up in a system riddled with scams and a court backlog of more than million cases with more than of those in Florida statistics show We tried to do this the legal way We tried to get help so that we didn t have a matter We tried Madison announced People need to know that this could happen to their husbands or their wives This is not just criminals On a Saturday in June Madison made the four-and-a-half-hour drive to Broward Transitional Center for her weekly visit with Juan Sitting in the car in the detention center parking lot she speedily applied her makeup even as her mother who had joined her reminded her Juan wouldn t care what she looked like Guards at the front informed visitors of the dress code no open-toed shoes no shorts no sleeveless shirts Strangers exchanged shoes even if it meant wearing a pair four sizes too big Inside detainees sat on one side of long cafeteria-style tables while visitors sat on the other - forcing them to maintain distance Whenever they could Madison and Juan squeezed hands shared a wink and mouthed I love you Each life update was followed with tears muddling Madison s makeup She drove back that same day arriving at the Jacksonville home Juan has yet to see for himself They had decided to upgrade from their one-bedroom one-bathroom apartment in Miami to a two-story house for more space but Madison declared it feels empty without Juan I m just stuck here in this big empty house alone she declared and it just feels like there s no way out Now while Madison works tirelessly for her surgical residency Juan awaits a decision about his future in the country They talk on the phone whenever Madison gets a break Their wish is simple to continue the life they were building together I made my life here Juan stated in a phone interview with News I met my wife and I want to stay because we have a family here I made this country mine already If Juan isn t granted permission to remain in the U S he plans to self-deport to Portugal because he fears being persecuted in Venezuela Madison then would have to decide whether to follow the love of her life or stay behind to complete the training to which she s dedicated years For the Pestanas the consequences are personal and debilitating the absence of a hand to hold the silence at a dinner table once marked by fresh flowers Madison even sleeps with Juan s shirt on his pillow spraying it with his cologne to remind her of his presence You wake up in the morning and for a minute you don t remember she noted You think that everything s OK and then all of a sudden it slaps you in the face again and you remember that your whole life is upside down I feel like the world is on fire outside and all I want is my husband to walk through it with me This assessment is part of Upheaval Across America an examination of immigration enforcement under the second Trump administration produced by Carnegie-Knight News For more stories visit https upheaval news com