My name is Mahi Tsegaye, and I'm starting a fundraiser for the Rodriguez family, who recently experienced a sudden tragedy. The night of August 15th, my partner and I received a call from his mother, Abigail Rodriguez. Prior to this, all we knew was that Mrs. Rodriguez had traveled from her home state of Texas to Louisiana along with her mother, husband, and her three youngest children. The purpose of this cross-state journey was so Mrs. Rodriguez could be by her eldest daughter's side after the birth of her baby boy. Mrs. Rodriguez’s daughter had not yet been discharged from the hospital at the time of the call, so we assumed it would be an update on her daughter’s health condition or how the baby was doing. What we heard then shocked us.

Her husband, Jaime Rodriguez, had been taken by ICE. Mrs. Rodriguez proceeded to tell us that her husband and her youngest daughter, who is 3 years old, were together trying to complete a Spark order that would eventually take them into the Fort Polk military base. They were doing this in her eldest daughter’s husband’s car since he works away from home. When they reached a checkpoint, they were asked to provide ID. Mrs. Rodriguez provided her driver's license, and Mr. Rodriguez provided his matrícula consular, an identification document given by a foreign consulate to verify identity and nationality, not an official record of current U.S. immigration status.

This is when the officers told them that Abigail’s ID could be accepted, but Jaime’s couldn’t. They asked them what they were doing, and they explained they were completing a delivery order as a family. They then asked them to drive around to the visitor’s booth, where they started asking them for their information. Once it was provided, they then asked Mr. and Mrs. Rodriguez to turn off their vehicle and step out. Mrs. Rodriguez protested and told the officers she couldn’t leave her 3-year-old daughter in the back of a hot car. The officer went back and spoke to someone, then came back and asked for Jaime to step out of the car instead. Abigail was confused by this because Jaime hadn’t done anything wrong, nor had he been driving the vehicle.

Jaime Rodriguez stepped out of the car, where they took him to the back and handcuffed him. Abigail, confused, asked if she was going to be arrested as well, to which the officer replied that he couldn’t provide any information yet. Abigail told us she waited a couple of minutes, and in those minutes, she heard the officers saying to just take her husband, “who cares, he’s illegal.” I would like to take a second to say that many individuals with active, lawful immigrant cases (visa applicants, people with temporary protected status, or pending asylum seekers) still carry and use their matrícula as ID while awaiting their official U.S. documentation. An officer came back up to her car window and said she was free to go, but they had every right to take her as well because she wasn’t showing up as a legal citizen in their database, but they wouldn’t because her daughter was with her. Abigail is a Texas-born U.S. citizen, as her mother was before her and her mother before her. After this threat, Mrs. Rodriguez did not want to further prolong or complicate the situation by saying anything else, so for her daughter’s sake, she left.

This is Abigail Rodriguez’s message: “My husband is a very hardworking father. He’s been here for over 10 years and has never been in any kind of trouble. He was always trying to provide the best that he could for our children. With him being detained by ICE, I am now left with having to do everything alone. I am raising funds to go towards legal fees and/or anything that is needed to bring my husband home, as well as to help me cover family expenses. If you’re not able to help, please pray for us. Prayer alone is powerful. Please share this GoFundMe, if possible. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. I do not wish this on anyone; our children are heartbroken and just want their papa back.”