This may sound like a broken record but it’s the truth: when Donald Trump and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tell you they’re targeting only bad hombres for arrest, they’re lying to you. USA Today reports that ICE has denied a stay of deportation for Yancarlos Mendez, the 27-year-old father figure to a 6-year-old who was paralyzed from the waist down following a February car crash. Mendez is the family’s breadwinner and, along with his partner Sandra, a caretaker for Ricky. The boy will need care for some time, but if ICE goes through with its plan, the man who has become like his dad won’t be there for him:
Mendez had lived since 2014 with Mendoza and her paraplegic son. The boy suffered paralysis and dozens of other serious injuries in the crash. Mendoza, who suffered a broken arm and leg when her car was hit broadside, said she is struggling financially and can't pay her rent. She had to quit her job in a pizza restaurant to care for Ricky around the clock.
She and Mendez underwent training to learn how to care for Ricky's complicated medical needs at home.
Mendez was stopped for driving without a license—for the second time—in November and sentenced to 30 days in the Butler County Jail. The policy of the county's hard-line anti-immigration leader, Sheriff Richard Jones, is to cooperate with ICE and honor its detainers. ICE ordered Mendez's deportation Dec. 15 because he overstayed the visa he obtained through the Visa Waiver Program.
According to USA Today, “the story of ICE's decision to move forward with Mendez's deportation went viral over the weekend and attracted national attention.” Actor and activist Alyssa Milano tweeted that it’s “hard to believe this kind of cruelty is happening right here in the United States,” but it’s been happening by the thousands since Trump’s inauguration, to many other loving parents and families. Currently, the dad remains in an Ohio detention facility, with Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio “now trying to help secure Mendez's release”:
A group called Indivisible Tampa Bay sent an email to The Enquirer to ask where its members can express its unhappiness about the decision.
[Attorney Nazly] Mamedova said she was directing people to Rebecca Adducci, the director of the ICE office in Detroit, which has jurisdiction in Ohio.
"Since we have filled up the voice mailbox on her phone, please share this info with your networks and ask them to email her today: Rebecca.j.adducci@dhs.gov," Mamedova wrote in an email to supporters.
People who want Mendez released and reunited with his family circulated Adducci's phone number, (313) 568-6036, and the email address for Valentina Seeley, ICE's regional community relations officer, valentina.seeley@ice.dhs.gov.
"He told me he is worried because they are deporting a lot of people tomorrow," Mendoza said regarding the recent phone conversation she was allowed to have with Mendez. "I am very sad. But he told me he loves me. He loves Ricky. He said Ricky is his son. He said we will be together again as a family. He said that is his prayer to God. He is praying a lot." This is what’s happening with our tax dollars. And now Trump wants even more money to inflict even more terror and pain on our immigrant communities. What we’re witnessing is truly one of the darkest and most shameful periods of our nation’s history.
