Ripped apart: The local story of a family severed by ICE

From KLCC Studios, this is Oregon on the record. I'm Michael Donne. We've been so inundated by stories of immigration and customs enforcement raids and arrests that we might actually be numb to it all. But perhaps one element of this sad and some might say cruel drama that is underreported is the impacts on family members who aren't arrested or deported but nevertheless have to live in the aftermath. Well, today on the show will bring you the story of just such a family here in Eugene. Lookout Eugene Springfield recently published a very in-depth and detailed story about what happened when a father who was in this country illegally for decades and was a real pillar in the community was nevertheless. arrested, tried, and forced to leave this country. And what has happened to the family he leaves behind? An interview with that reporter is next on Oregon on the record.

Imagine living in Eugene for years and years and quietly going about your life, raising a family, helping out your community, minding your own business. But because your name appears on a list, you're arrested, detained for months, and then ripped away from your family through a deportation process. Well, don't imagine it. Today on the show, a reporter with Lookout Eugene joins us to tell this local story of our nation's escalation of immigration enforcement. Grace Chinowski, reporter for the lookout Eugene Springfield. Grace, it's great to see you. Thanks so much for coming in. Thank you. Thanks for having me. I really enjoyed. You had a very in-depth piece recently about sort of one family, one local family's ordeal with regard to ICE. Let's start with this, and I hope I pronounce the name correctly. Who is, is it Misael Garcia Lopez? Misail, yes, very close. So he is a 49-year-old man from central Mexico. He came to Eugene about 18 years ago and raised a family of three here along with his wife in West Eugene. He worked in a variety of jobs very much in many ways kind of. built into the fabric of this city. And then in November, he was arrested by ICE after dropping off his school. Yeah. Or sorry, dropping off his son at school. Yeah, I think it was November 19th, 2025. So a normal day, he's going to drop his child off at school. Describe what he described to you about kind of being followed, right? Yes. So he was. Like I said, he just exited the parking lot of his son's school. We know this because there was dash cam video from his truck that we were actually able to obtain that captured those last moments. And essentially two ice vehicles started tailing him as he drove home. Eventually, their lights and sirens started and he pulled over near Meadowlark Prairie. Okay. And at that point, they came up to his vehicle, asked him what his name was. and then that's when the dash cam recording shuts off. But we understand that they were not able to find valid immigration documents on his possession according to agency records. And at that point, they took him into custody and put him in the back of their vehicle and took him to Portland. Okay. So pick up the story kind of from there. Give our audience kind of paint the picture of what... his experience in iced detention was in Portland and then further up the road into Tacoma. Right, right. So his first stop was in this office in Portland, but then, like you just said, his final destination was an ice facility in Tacoma, Washington, known as the Northwest Ice Processing Center. And it has over 1,500 beds. It's gotten, I believe, more than 3,000 complaints from inmates about the conditions there. He was held there for about two months. He called his family daily, from what I understand, and a lot of his day just kind of looked like passing the time. He discussed, you talked a lot with other inmates and heard their stories and honestly got some peace from that. A lot of card games, basketball games, but otherwise it was a very bland routine. And eventually he...

It ended, and he went back to Mexico. Yeah, we're going to bring that up in a little bit. So he's there. Talk about what his family is going through. And certainly in your article, and we'll make sure, you know, you don't use names because of some fears here. But just talk in general terms about what they were going through when their father is, you know, way up the road in Tacoma. Yeah. So I first met Jasmine Garcia-Lopez, Misail's daughter, who's 23 years old. I first met her right after her dad was taken by ICE. And we... all kind of felt like we hadn't seen many stories that answer the next questions that come to mind of like you just said what happens to a family when when their primary provider their father is taken away and so in that way we really wanted to be there for yeah what those next look months looked like without him and me and my former colleague Isaac Wasserman who helped me out a lot with this story we would go to their house in West Eugene almost every week and just check in, talk to them about what it's been feeling like, both her younger brother, Leo, and her mom. And I mean, it was a... massive period of grieving as you would imagine for the family and then also a lot of logistical and financial stress of how do we support ourselves now that like I said our primary provider is gone how do we support our support him through the legal costs of this next ordeal and and stuff like that so just an immense amount of stress and sadness yeah and even You sort of teed it up, but maybe even pull the string a little bit more. The logistics of it all. They're having to raise money for his legal defense. They're having to find money that he was providing. Talk about just like the day and day out. In addition to the emotions, just how did they have to live their lives? Yeah. We know that. Jasmine's mom, who we identified as Valeria in the story, she stopped going to work altogether just for fear of an encounter like this happening to her. She's also undocumented, and so that was, you know, in many ways. Certain members of the family were just sheltered after this and they did not feel safe leaving the house and then Jasmine kind of took on more responsibility whether it was just running more errands or just acting in that

in that sort of logistical role when it comes to communicating with lawyers and arranging letters of support for her dad's bond hearing. And then eventually, you know, the family started like organizing, for example, like tamale sales. And they would make a ton of tamales out of their kitchen in West Eugene and just sell them to friends and family to get a little bit more income on the side. Yeah, yeah. If you're just joining us, we're talking to a lookout reporter Grace Chanowski. who did this very big piece about a family sort of torn apart by ICE. There is rhetoric, a lot of it coming from the federal government, about people who are undocumented. And I think what's great about your piece is you point out, yes, these were undocumented people, or certainly the father and so on and so forth. But, you know, there's this rhetoric, but then there's also the reality is this is a family that... you know, fits in very well in the local economy and fits in with the local community. Just talk a little bit about the fact that, I mean, they were doing what all of us are doing. They're getting by. They're contributing to the community. Just talk about sort of their place in our Eugene community. Yeah. That was one thing that the whole bond hearing process really illuminated for us as part of that. Miesail's family and friends submitted over a dozen letters of support that kind of vouch for his character and explained more about what he was contributing to our home in Eugene. And a lot of it was acts of service for his loved ones. So we know that he was someone who was always kind of first to volunteer to help out with some manual labor or, you know, otherwise, you know, child care, a lot of... A lot of examples of him, you know, helping out other families in terms of taking kids to and from sports or school or whatever. And we also know that they were active members of Catholic Church here, and that was their faith is very meaningful to them. And in general, I think that since the story has come out, seeing some of the response that we've gone from other community members has really shown, like. I don't know, this is someone who is very missed in our community. And as you said, he had no criminal record. He had a speeding ticket and a couple disputes in small claims court and that's it. Yeah, yeah. I want to get into sort of what ISIS told you. I know that they responded via statements and stuff. And in talking or asking you about ICE's response, you know, there's this quote that you got from them, which I think is instructive because. A lot of this is being teed up as sort of us versus them, ice versus everybody else. And this quote about how they weren't going to address your questions about some of their tactics, you know, especially like identifying vehicles. That would place an even bigger target on our agents' backs. And I think that that's what's happening here in a way. And I want to get your comments on this is a lot of this is being framed like ICE agents are in danger. But they're not necessarily talking that much about the people that ICE is placing in danger. I just wanted to get your comments on what they commented to you. Yeah, that's an interesting question. I think going into this.

reporting process. You know, I am a complete novice on any sort of immigration reporting, which is a, you know, a field of expertise that many reporters are far better than me yet. But going into this process, just with my very limited understanding of the way that ICE was responding to media requests, we knew that they're... their response was going to be very limited when it comes to actual information sharing, like I said, regarding tactics or what we could really understand they were doing or their mission was that day. And so in many ways, my job as a reporter was going to kind of work around that until I was able to finally reach out and just give them everything I had and say, well, What do you think now? And it didn't change much. No matter how detailed my questions were, it kind of seemed like they were going to respond that way regardless. Yeah. Oftentimes spokespeople, when they get back to a reporter, they use language that is as neutral as possible. But it was interesting. One of the quotes about, you know, that I was talking about this individual that was arrested. And I think it's fascinating. And it just the first few. lines or few words of the of the sentence, this alien knew the consequences of violating U.S. immigration law. It's just, I got to say, and someone, I've been in PR a lot of my career, that's a very aggressive way to characterize a person. And just, you know, it seemed like their responses back to you were like, Almost authoritarian. What were your thoughts on that? I think that almost all readers can see the very clear contrast there in terms of the richness of Misa Eil's character. and the, I would say, simplicity of the way his story was described by a federal agency. We had discussions about how best to include quotes from ICE, and we opted not to really dilute what they said because we thought it was important for people to see that, you know, in response to, I would say, some very fair questions they did not choose to sort of. I don't know if sanitize their language is the right way to put it, but yeah, that rhetoric stayed in there regardless. You do talk about the fact that missile... You know, he had some earlier border crossings in his life. How does that fit into sort of, you know, what has happened to him currently? Yeah. So like many people who immigrate to the United States, it's not a super clean cut operation most of the time. I mean, people still have families that remain in their countries of origin when they leave. And so that was the case for Misail is.

You know, he left Mexico for the first time when he was a new father in his early 20s. He, for many reasons, had to go back a couple times to see people that he loved and check in on the family. And so because of that, that kind of played a big role. And I think the way that his case turned out legally, immigration judges who sit under the executive branch are these days sort of more. They are interpreting that more strongly when it comes to whether or not they grant bond in people's cases. So, Misail's chances of reuniting with his family while his case went through the legal system were sort of limited because of this, I don't want to say new policy, but this new sort of interpretation that... Yeah, it's complicated. But essentially, yeah, they're now in ways that they once were flexible about that and understanding about that, they're no longer. Okay. Talk a little bit about his trial and the appearances before the judge, how that all sort of played out and talk about what you found out about that. Yeah, that was one of the most interesting parts of this story for me to report. I spoke with his attorney, Hillary Smith, who... basically explained how the judge was able to sort of elicit details from Misail about some of those earlier border crossings without them necessarily being in evidence. And so, again, in that way, Misail sort of his story fit right into this concern that the judges are increasingly sort of cracking down on regarding earlier crossings in ways that they usually were more flexible. It happens. He goes through trial. Talk about his ultimate decision, which I believe is called voluntary departure. Talk about that. Yes. So his bond was denied, which again, it essentially means that he will not be able to reunite with his family while his case moves forward. And at that point, many migrants choose to sort of just... get out of detention because of how difficult this process is to manage while you're behind bars. And so Misail took that route. Voluntary departure is also known as self-deportation. It's essentially when you tell the government that you're leaving. And in exchange, they don't give you a removal order, which would bar you from re-entering the U.S. for 10 years. And so the idea is because Misail took a voluntary departure, it would be easier for him to one day return to the United States. That process in and of itself is expensive. it's difficult, especially to manage across borders. And so there's not necessarily a clear timeline for when or if that will happen, but it is more of an option because he took that avenue. So how is his life back in Mexico right now? It's difficult. It's definitely, you know, something that he shared with me as part of the story was that The idea of some of his family moving to reunite with him back in Mexico is one that was very bittersweet because he knew that financially it's just harder to get by there. He was struggling to find work when he first moved. A lot of it is manual labor. He had a bad shoulder injury that made that difficult. And then also there's two families there, him and his wife's that.

You know, they support themselves, but they were also relying on some of his, their income. And so that needs to be replaced as well. Yeah. Is it, I mean, he has family in Mexico. I mean, is it, I guess just getting by, but is there. Is there some hope that he can return? I mean, is that kind of, is it a fate hope? I don't know what kind of his emotions are thinking about, okay, I am home in Mexico, but I want to be someplace else. I would say for now, it's just about readjusting to this current chapter. I think things have changed so fast already for the family that maybe longer term aspirations aren't really something that they can entertain yet. Yeah. Yeah. Well, what about his family now? How are they coping? How are they dealing with this all? Yeah. So when Misail took his voluntary departure back to Mexico and moved there, it sort of set up this really impossible decision in many ways for the rest of the family, which is that his wife, Valeria, again, a pseudonym. She is also undocumented and felt that she would need to return to be with him if he were to have to leave the country. And she wanted to take their 11-year-old son Leo along with them so that he could still have his parents. And so in just honest... Two days ago, they actually took that flight to Mexico and they just reunited with Misail and that kind of new chapter for their family is beginning as their other two. children remain in Eugene. So, so they're going to stay here. Some of the family is, is back in Mexico. Yep. How old are the, the, the, the children that are remaining here in Eugene? They're both in their 20s. Okay, okay. So they've established a life here. And so I guess they're going to live in two separate worlds to some degree. Basically, yeah. Okay, okay. As a reporter. And you talked about the fact that your normal beat is sort of city politics, but sometimes I think what's wonderful is taking a journalist maybe outside of the beat and putting them into a very different story. Talk a little bit about your process because obviously it was an emotional story, but it was also a story where there were a lot of moving parts. Talk about how you sort of encompassed this project. Yeah, it was not a super... Type A operation, I will say. Okay. You know, Lookout is a startup newsroom, and so in many ways, like any big story that we do is a bit pioneering for our team. And so in many ways, yeah, I would.

sort of pawn off some city government stories to other reporters who very graciously helped out as I kind of locked myself in my room and and just poured over documents or did interviews. A huge amount of it was building trust and we made a lot of time for that. We preserved a lot of time for that just going over to their house, the family's house and not necessarily recording or doing any type of actual. report like journalism but um just sitting there and and talking and making time for small talk making time for things that have nothing to do with the story because um you know we wanted to find out who they are not just what happened to them on that november day yeah and it's also a very visual story you've got stills you've got video i mean you kind of weave this whole thing together was it you know obviously A lot has happened to this family through very official channels, the federal government and whatnot. Was it hard to kind of establish trust? I know that, you know, that sometimes for whatever reason people have reasons maybe perhaps not to trust journalists. Was that difficult to sort of establish that opening trust? Honestly, no. And that was one of the main, I think, blessings of meeting the Garcia-Lopez family. I was extremely cautious throughout the reporting process and when it came to just explaining to them what the implications of speaking on the record meant for their family. Like when you Google yourself, your name is going to come up and like that is a scary thing if there's members of the family that are not documented. And so we try to be very clear about that, but at no point in the process did they... I think, question our intentions or, you know, maybe carry in some of those assumptions that people who watch more national news as opposed to local news may pick up. But, you know, obviously there were members of the family who met me many, many times, but never spoke to me on the record. And that was something that was totally okay. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's a great piece. She is Grace Sienowski. She is a reporter with Lookout. Eugene will link to the article on our website as well. Thank you so much for the story. And thanks for coming in and talking to us. Thank you. That's the show for today. All episodes of Oregon on the Record are available as a podcast at KLCC.org. Monday on the show, several non-profits in Lane County are merging to become more impactful in the community and we'll talk about their collaboration. I'm Michael Don, host of Oregon on the Record. Thanks for listening.