Ernesto Magaña Barriga is a father and husband who was detained by ICE yesterday while attending a routine monthly immigration check-in at the ISAP office and is now in Texas. He entered the country legally and is here seeking asylum, as is his whole family. A couple months prior to this, his passport, along with the passports of his wife, and youngest daughter were taken by ICE. Needless to say, they feel very unsafe right now without their legal documentation or access to it.

Ernesto’s family decided a while back that they would sign up to "voluntary self deport" by the end of this month regardless of their legal status. However, with Ernesto being detained, those plans have been derailed, as they will be unable to go back to Mexico (or even leave the state) without their passports. His lawyer said they could petition to have him sent back to Minnesota but that would cost them $5,000. Otherwise, he will be detained at a facility in Texas for an unknown period of time, making it impossible for them to self-deport and further adding to their already vulnerable state.

This is just one extreme stressor in a series that has been added to Ernesto’s family over the last couple of months; they have been too fearful to leave their homes which means only sporadically working and his daughters being unable to attend school.

Lawyers, rent, and moving all cost an exorbitant amount of money and we as friends of this family are attempting to lighten their burden.