In his first 100 days in office, President Trump has struggled to fulfill his promise to carry out mass deportations, a reality that has prompted his administration to change its strategy.Rather than putting its focus on migrants with a criminal record, or those who recently crossed the border, the White House is increasingly seeking to deport those who came to the United States decades ago and have established a life, career and family in America.Jessica Cheung, a producer on “The Daily,” tells the story of one such migrant through the eyes of his daughter.Guest: Jessica Cheung, a senior producer at The New York Times, working on “The Daily.”Background reading: The Trump administration is frustrated over the pace of deportations.Inside a chaotic U.S. deportation flight to Brazil.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Photo: Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Chapter 1: What happened to Isla's dad?
She told me that like your father got detained. And then that's when it was just like, it felt like somebody put a little like 10,000 blocks of like bricks on my chest. I was just hearing mumbles. I felt like I was building up so many emotions and it was all gonna come out and I didn't want anybody to see me like that.
Chapter 2: How did Isla feel when she heard the news?
So I just gave my paper to my teacher and I like ran out the classroom and I tried to get in my car as fast as possible. And it's just like, you just start envisioning the worst. Like, he's in this terrible place. This is a hardworking man. No criminal record. Like, you guys just took him.
From The New York Times, I'm Michael Bavaro. This is The Daily. In his first 100 days, President Trump has struggled to fulfill his promise of deporting one million undocumented immigrants, a reality that has prompted his administration to change its strategy. Rather than putting its focus on migrants with a criminal record or those who recently crossed the border,
The White House is increasingly seeking to deport those who came to the U.S. decades ago and have established a life, career, and family in America. Today, Daily producer Jessica Chung tells the story of one such migrant through the eyes of his daughter. It's Friday, May 2nd.
I first spoke to Isla back in February. This was a month into the Trump administration, which had promised quick and mass deportations. I was calling immigration lawyers around the country, trying to get a sense of who exactly was getting targeted for deportation and how ICE was fining them. And that's when a lawyer called me back, saying you got to talk to Isla.
Hello. Hi. Hi. So this is Jessica. This is Ayla. She's Fabrizio's 20-year-old daughter. Okay, great. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, too. My name is Ayla Gomez.
Massachusetts.
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Chapter 3: What is Fabrizio Gomez's background?
Right now, Isla's a sophomore at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Massachusetts, where she's studying architecture and interior design. She was raised in a town called Saugus, just outside Boston, where days before we had talked, her dad was detained by ICE officers. Tell me a little bit about your dad. What is his name? How old is he? And what does he do?
My dad, he's Fabricio Gomez. He is 47 years old, and he works at a construction company of his own.
Chapter 4: How did Fabrizio build his life in the U.S.?
Ayla told me in 2001 her dad had settled here in Massachusetts as an undocumented immigrant. He'd come here from Brazil. This was three years before Ayla was born. Tell me about why he left Brazil.
There was a time when my father left Brazil. Sorry, I'm just asking like these questions for my mom because I never really went like in depth of. So my mom said it was due to the violence down there and like he couldn't make a living for himself, let alone have a family down there.
When he first got here, he lived with his aunt who was already here. But eventually he met Isla's mom, who was also from Brazil.
They actually walked into each other and they were like, oh my God, like I remember you, blah, blah, blah.
and they moved out on their own, with money Fabrizio made by working in construction.
So he had been working like small jobs, almost like a handyman. And then he met somebody, which is my dad's old boss that still remains in our life, Ken. And he slowly taught my dad how to work. It went from like changing door panels, windows to fixing inside the house. And then it went to roofing until he gathered up all his knowledge that he had.
And then that's when he decided that he was ready to open his company and start start creating a life for himself and our family. And is your sense that he loves his job? Yes. My dad is actually very passionate for his job. You would think he wouldn't be because you're constantly going up a ladder. It's so cold since we live in Massachusetts. And it's really a hard job.
Even though he wasn't fluent in English, he had this way of connecting with people.
My dad, wherever he walks, he talks out loud to everybody and he talks to people like he knows people. He's always talked to his clients like he knew them for so long. I don't know how he talks to them, like everybody understands him.
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Chapter 5: What were Fabrizio's dreams for his family?
Yes. So this was a fifth grade science fair. First, I have to do kind of like the blueprint. So I went to my cousin and we drew like the measurements and everything. And then I went to my dad. It was for a ramp to like define gravity. If we were to drop something, it would fall like on the ramp and it would flip up. My dad took me, one of my favorite stores, it's Lowe's and Home Depot.
And you know, that's my dad's automatic favorite store because he always has to be there. And we had to buy wood, nails, and we had to use like the saw because the corners had to connect. So we had to cut it diagonally to connect. So he taught me like measurements too. I got to do this with my dad. I was able to present it to my class. I was able to show it to my teacher.
And I got so congratulated for it at school that it's just like, oh my God, everybody's going to know me. Everybody's going to know my dad. I'd be like, do you know my dad does construction? He can build your house. And I'd offer, I'd be like, he can do things for you. He can build your house. I would actually walk around with my parents' card in my purse offering everybody.
I always wanted to work with my dad. I'm not going to be able to, you know, carry all the shingles, the roofs and everything that he does. But I'm going to like do what my dad does, which is why I went to college for architecture and interior design. So eventually in the future, I could work with my dad's company.
Isla says her dream is that her dad's company becomes a family company with her.
His dream was always for us to go to college and pursue something that we have passion for because they weren't able to choose their own path. Like, you're not born saying, I'm going to clean toilets. I'm going to be a contractor. You're born thinking, like, I want to be a businesswoman. I want to go after this. I want to have my own company. I want to have my own home.
And it's just like, I feel like that's what their main goal for us was, that we're able to choose our own path. My dad, he's always been the person to tell us, work hard, nothing's gifted, nothing's handed, go after it.
So fast forward to today, the dream that you described your dad having for you guys was in progress. Like you're in college, your dad is working hard at a business that he owns. When Trump was inaugurated on January 20th, did your family have conversations about what precautions you guys would take given that he was aggressively pursuing people without documentation?
I would always ask my dad, like, should we worry? And he'd always tell us like, no, like there's don't worry as much as obviously when I'm alone, when anybody's alone, you always have that thought in the back of your mind. Like, what am I going to do? What if things go down? Well, like, obviously we worry at all times, but,
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Chapter 6: How has the family's life changed after the detention?
So he would at least tell me to be at least 30 minutes early. So I took that advice. I was 30 minutes early. And on top of that, I already had everything printed. I literally had in a folder. He was like, yep, that's how I like. So as soon as she was ready to like give me the opportunity, I could just give her the folder and I was automatically hired.
Oh, wow. Amazing. And then how did you share the news with him?
Um, I just like, I couldn't hold it. I literally was like, hi, Bansa. Um, how are you? He was like, um, great. Your mom said you had great news for me. I was like, yep. And I told her, I was just like, I got the job. I'm working at the company, explain the company to him. And he was like, look at you. Like, I'm so proud of you.
He would always tell me, like, these are the things that keep me going. You're going after your future. You're creating a future for yourself. And I need you to continue to do that for me.
These calls went on for two months. And then in April, Isla learned of two major developments. First, Ice was going to enforce an order of removal against her dad, which meant he could be deported immediately. Second, Ice was moving him over 1,600 miles to a notorious detention center in Louisiana, which had been investigated by the Department of Homeland Security for alleged abuses.
After he was transferred there...
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Chapter 7: What coping mechanisms did Isla and her dad use?
Can you hear me?
Yes, I can. I gave her a call on a recent Sunday. How was your Easter Sunday?
Um, you know, it is fine. We're just missing our dad, so.
Yeah.
Um, he got transferred to, um, Louisiana last night.
Isla says her dad's new detention center in Pine Prairie, Louisiana, is nothing like the one in Plymouth.
It's quite literally a prison where people that actually committed real crimes would be in. Like, he's in a jail cell where it's just like Ten times worse. Guards are completely strict. Like, there's no really sitting there conversating with them. Like, they're guards. And he says that it's a mess in there. It's just, like, very chaotic. Everybody's everywhere. Everybody's mixed.
When Isla talks to her dad now, things feel different. She senses that the brave face her dad had put on is starting to crack.
He was very sincere this time on this call. Like, it's not good. Usually he wouldn't really complain about Plymouth. But now, like my mom was saying right now to me, that since it's starting to hit two months and reality is really knocking at our door, especially with the deportation, Now I feel like he's really being sincere of how he's truly feeling like.
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Chapter 8: How did Isla maintain her connection with her dad?
I guess at this point, you know, you're in college right now. You're studying architecture and interior design. And you picked that major because you hope that you could eventually work with your dad. And that dream is looking dimmer and dimmer. What is that dream now?
As of right now, there's like no dream, no goal. There's no that dream that you dream big of, oh, I really want to do this. It's just kind of like, I want to be like completely honest. It's just bland. It's just like, okay, well, my dream is to kind of just be able to push through this.
Have you dreamt about reuniting with your dad on the other hand? And if so, when you picture seeing him, where do you imagine it will be? And what do you think he'll look like?
That, I have, like, a literal ideal dream. Me just getting that call of being told, like, go pick up your dad. And all I could think of is me just, like, parking my car, getting out my car. He's standing outside, like quite literally the same exact person he left, like in his work clothes, just the way he is with his face, like his regular face.
The same exact way he left is the same exact way I'll be seeing him in that vision.
Like no time had passed.
No, like literally no time has passed, but it feels like life spent upside down.
Yeah.
And just hugging my dad and all I could literally do is cry, like cry my literal heart out. You ever just cried as a kid where you would literally hiccup like so much? Like that type of cry, like everything that I've been holding in like within these two months, that's exactly how I see it. It's like a deja vu like vision. It's just like it just feels like it's going to happen.
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