Oregon Couple Forced to Leave 2-Year-Old Daughter Behind After Being Deported by ICE: ‘A Living Nightmare’

An Oregon couple were forced to leave behind their 2-year-old daughter after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained them before they were deported back to their home country of Mexico, a family member has said.

Miguel Garcia Pazaran, 26, who was in his pajamas and house slippers at the time, was taking his wife, 27-year-old Dulce Maria Trejo Segura, to her job at a snack production plant in the city of Forest Grove before dawn one weekday when they were pulled over by immigration agents, according to The Oregonian.

They were taken to a detention center in Tacoma, Wash., before being deported to Mexico within eight days. Their 2-year-old daughter, Sofía, who is a U.S. citizen, was left behind in Hillsboro, where the family lived, per the outlet.

Garcia Pazaran’s older sister, Maggie Garcia — who lived with the family and sometimes helped out with child care — told The Oregonian that her sister-in-law called her after the couple was detained on Dec. 8.

Trejo Segura described what was happening, then asked her to “Take care of Sofía,” according to the outlet.

Garcia said the couple had lived in Oregon without authorization for four years, adding that both worked hard and neither had a criminal record, according to the paper.

With no other close relatives nearby, Garcia said she quit her job at a building materials warehouse to care for Sofía full time.

“It’s like a living nightmare, we are devastated,” she told the outlet. “We need to find a solution to reunite them as soon as possible. In the meantime, we have to endure what’s happening.”

Garcia has also shared the family’s situation on a GoFundMe page she set up to help cover expenses. In the translated description, she said she needs help “to cover basic expenses such as rent, electricity, diapers, and other necessities” for the toddler.

Garcia Pazaran and Trejo Segura, who had not previously been separated from their daughter, were dropped off in Nogales in the Mexican state of Sonora and allegedly went two days without eating after their money and identification documents were confiscated, per The Oregonian.

Garcia told the outlet they eventually made it back to their hometown in the state of Veracruz after receiving food, clothing and bus-fare assistance from a migrant shelter where they spent the night.

Because Garcia said she does not have the documents needed to travel and return Sofía to her parents, she told the paper that a friend — a legal permanent U.S. resident who was born in Mexico and lives in Oregon — was planning to help reunite the family.

The nonprofit organization Adelante Mujeres, based in Forest Grove, has also been assisting Garcia with food and necessities. She told the outlet she moved to Oregon from the town of Huayacocotla in Veracruz to find better work and support her two older daughters, ages 10 and 12, who remain in Mexico.

“I have cried so much,” Garcia told the outlet, adding that she has begun thinking about returning to Veracruz.

She also described how Sofía has been struggling since her parents’ deportation, waking in the night crying for her mother. “She knows they are not here. She knows something is wrong,” Garcia said.

Garcia added that Sofía sometimes “takes her mom’s photo and hugs it.”

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson disputed claims that the child was separated from her parents, calling those allegations “patently FALSE.” The agency said families can either be removed with their child or arrange for the child to stay with a safe guardian they choose, and that in this case the parents opted for the girl to be placed with her aunt.

The couple was arrested by ICE for “being illegally present” in the U.S. and, according to DHS, for overstaying the terms of their visas.

The case comes as residents in the Hillsboro area have raised concerns about immigration enforcement activity in recent weeks. At a Hillsboro City Council meeting held on Nov. 4, a 16-year-old boy identified as Manny described his fear for his parents’ safety when they leave for work, telling officials he worried he might not get the chance to say goodbye.

The meeting included hours of public testimony from residents about immigration enforcement as part of President Donald Trump’s broader crackdown on illegal immigration, NBC affiliate KGW and the Hillsboro News Times reported.

Trump was reelected in part on a pledge to intensify enforcement, including vowing to carry out “the largest deportation operation in the history of our country.”

But the push has drawn sustained controversy amid reports of U.S. citizens being swept up, families being divided, and other concerns.