It didn’t take long for Kenia Velásquez to feel the impact of President Donald Trump’s promised immigration crackdown.
Less than a week into the start of the second Trump presidency, immigration agents arrested Velásquez’s husband, Wilson, a tire shop employee in DeKalb County.
Wilson Velásquez has been held since then at the Stewart Detention Center in South Georgia, a large immigrant prison where the population has surged. He is facing deportation.
The last three months have been difficult, and Kenia Velásquez often has tears in her eyes as she cares for their three children, ages 7, 9 and 13. The family illegally crossed the southern border together three years ago to escape violence in their native Honduras.
Kenia Velásquez has continued going to church every Sunday in Tucker, where the congregation has raised money to support the family. Federal agents took Wilson Velásquez into custody outside of the church in January during Sunday services.
Pastor Luis Ortiz, an immigrant in the country without legal permission, said Kenia Velásquez’s attendance gives strength to other parishioners. Several Atlanta-area pastors with majority-immigrant congregations say Wilson’s arrest has created a chilling effect, driving down attendance at services.
Approximately 1,500 immigrants have been arrested in Georgia from late January through early April, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The fear and uncertainty has led some Georgia immigrants to return home of their own accord.
Kenia said life in the U.S. under Trump is still preferable to gang violence in Honduras.
“The problem is that the gangs ask you for money. And people like us, with low incomes, we have no way of paying them. And what the gangsters do then is they go and they kill you,” she said.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
