My husband had applied for asylum.

He showed up for his appointment.

Later, Milton called me and said, "I passed the interview."

I felt like I had a weight off my shoulders, I felt free, I felt like something huge was happening in my life.

But this happiness only lasted for five or six minutes, because right there ICE officials came and arrested me.

They left him unable to communicate with me for five days, I was checking his alien number, we couldn't find him, we didn't know where he was.

I felt like my world ended in that moment, and I felt like my life was hanging by a thread.

If they deport him, he'll lose his life.

And believe me, I am mentally preparing myself for grief.

It's something difficult, but I have to prepare myself for everything, because I don't know what's going to happen next.

They Took My Husband My husband was the rock of my family.

We have three children, and he has been a hands-on father.

He's everything to them.

Even in the smallest things, he was always there for the girls.

- Hello.

- Hello.

Jeila, Papi!

You're getting so tall, my girl!

My beautiful little girl, you're growing up, my love.

- Mmhmm.

Jeila starts at 8:10.

Emiliana at 8:15.

My husband and I had it all.

We have never received public benefits.

I've paid my taxes.

I've never gotten a dollar back.

- Did you bring the key?

- Yes.

Bye.

Do you like my jacket?

We've had to cut back a lot at home.

In their snacks, they've seen them get smaller, they've seen how empty my fridge is.

I have a piano test.

Emiliana, the 6-year-old girl, saves every coin she finds.

And she says to me, "Mommy, can you pay for the internet with my money?"

How is a 6-year-old girl thinking about household expenses?

- Jeila.

I have to go.

- OK, I love you.

- I love you.

What worries me most is keeping a roof over my daughters' heads.

That's my biggest fear - that, as I say, I'll end up having to sleep in my car, I'll have to sleep outside.

Yes, that's my big fear.

In Chelsea, a sense of siege is gripping the community after ICE arrests.

Some neighbors say they now fear for their rights in the city.

ICE agents were seen staging at Market Basket and two other visible locations in Chelsea.

So real quickly, we're getting ready for our immigration clinic.

We have eight stations that have lawyers.

The vast majority of the people that we have in our city are from Honduras and El Salvador.

Since 2025, the fear level is huge.

So the food pantry will be open, and if you have any emergencies or any need, please reach out to La Colaborativa.

We are here to always help.

Good morning!

How are we doing?

A little warm!

Don't tell me that!

I met Brenda in the food line.

She says, "Can you please take my name down and call me?

I want to help you out."

And she began to volunteer, and I fell in love with her.

Later on, she worked at La Colaborativa as a staff.

You know, when we did holiday parties, and I see this beautiful, small, tiny couple dancing with all these moves, I'm like, "Check this out!"

So cute, and the girls, you know, sitting, looking at their parents like — so beautiful.

- I love you.

We're here with our team to tell you a little bit about our resources and what your options are — - Hello?

- what type of documentation you need, so you can prepare yourself just in case — and we hope this never happens — you have an interaction with ICE.

The same day, Brenda called.

I was like, "He just got the next step for the political asylum.

What do you mean that he was detained?"

The daughters, you can hear them crying in the back, and it was so messy.

In the city of Chelsea, of all the people that they have detained, we haven't heard the story of a van full of cocaine.

Rather a van full of landscaping material, hammers, paint.

Today we are coming together in prayer at this vigil to give strength to all the families that have been separated.

That's Milton's story.

School has never been for me.

Last year I passed the year with 108 absences.

Now this year, I wanted it to be on track.

I was gonna be like, "Ooh girl, I'm gonna be on top of my game this year!"

Now my dad is detained.

I don't even want to go to school.

I was a cheerleader.

I didn't join in this season.

When tryouts was for cheer, I felt like I couldn't remember the next step.

So far, my junior year has been a pain in the butt.

I help my mom with chores after school.

I knew my dad would tell me, "Don't let that woman down."

I've always heard people in the community get detained by ICE.

I never thought it was gonna be my family up next.

I was, I was scared.

I was, I was scared that I was gonna fail as a sister.

I feel like that's not the childhood they deserve, you know?

My dad would be the father to go to a parent-teacher conference.

So I went to both of their parent-teacher conferences, and I view those girls like if they were my own.

My daughters didn't know what immigration was.

- Hello, good afternoon!

When this happened, I had to explain it to them using drawings.

My daughter couldn't sleep.

She would say, "Can I wear this sweater of Daddy's?"

- Where is there ice cream?

Oh, McDonald's!

And she said that she could smell his scent and fragrance, so she fell asleep with that sweater, and she even still has it.

- Hello.

- Hello, an ice cream.

I'm legally protected.

I have valid documentation, thank God.

- With her ice cream.

But yes, I'm afraid.

My fear is that, I mean, something might happen to me, because my daughters would be 100% helpless.

I've even started to think about — I'm going to do a power of attorney, to give your children to someone if something were to happen.

Because believe me, every day when I leave my house, I get in my car, and I say, “Lord, protect me.” My life is not safe in Honduras, 100% guaranteed.

My husband, he tells me that, too, "I feel safer here in detention than I would returning to Honduras."

Once he arrives in Honduras, they will kill him.

My sister had already been dead for two years.

After I enrolled Nathaly in kindergarten, when I went to pick her up, the person who had killed my sister was outside.

Then he told me there was an outstanding debt and that we had to collect it.

That day, I grabbed my daughter, I withdrew my savings, and I came here.

- Let me see who else in this group ... hi, ladies!

So nice to see you after all this time.

How are you?

- I wanted to ask for a milk.

- OK.

I have a lady here who can't come to pick up food but needs some milk.

- Don't worry.

Where's my lady?

I lost her!

If I know that you don't have medicine or food, I'm getting you food.

I'm getting you the medicine.

- OK.

We never shy away from a crisis.

There's a person here whose mother died, and we want to help with funeral costs.

OK.

OK.

OK, my love.

That little voice, how beautiful.

God bless you!

My community members see their activist being happy and saying, "We're gonna pull through.

Don't worry about it.

We're gonna figure it out."

But then in a blink of an eye, there's five people taken, and we cannot stop them.

And I find myself at times, "What am I gonna do?"

I don't have the answers.

- My love, how are you?

I probably talk to Brenda three times a week.

- And when is the legal hearing?

Yes, I want you to let us know, because we will gather a group to come support you.

I make it my business to check on her constantly, and I tell her all the time, “Doesn't matter what time — if you're having a hard time, you call me at home.” Brenda was going through this quietly on her own, and I know for a fact that there's many people like her.

I just can't get used to this big car.

Oh, I hit the snow!

Milton knows a lot about construction.

He builds houses from the ground up.

He founded his own company.

Since he's not here, it's up to me to take on the responsibility.

I basically work from Monday to Monday.

My days off, I have had to be at Home Depot starting at 6 a.m.

and then return home at 7:30 to pick up the girls and take them to school.

The projects that were supposed to be completed have now been completed, but there is no longer any income.

Milton had 12 employees.

During my first month, I had to lay off eight employees.

The savings my husband left behind are now gone.

We pay rent, bills, car insurance, company insurance.

I had my three-bedroom apartment.

My income wasn't enough to keep paying for it.

And thanks to my sister and her husband, who supported me and gave me this space.

It's a little smaller, but we try to give it love and adjust.

I stay in a single room with the girls, but the rooms are spacious.

When my dad would come home, there would be laughter in the house.

Ha ha ha ha!

Where are my beautiful daughters at?

And then, you know, for dinner, everyone was gathered in the kitchen as a family.

We would talk about how our days went, what's our plans.

Moving was one of the hardest things, I would say.

I hate it.

And I've never told this to my mother, because I don't want for her to feel a certain type of way, you know.

When my dad got detained, I had recently started therapy because I was also a victim of a case.

They had diagnosed me with PTSD and general anxiety disorder.

I said, "I don't wanna keep my case on the low.

I want charges being pressed."

My mom started to get more scared when my dad was detained.

My mom was like, “With what confidence am I gonna go inside a courthouse if I'm not sure if I'm gonna even come back?” The House of Representatives is considering legislation that would prohibit ICE from making arrests at courthouses without a warrant or judicial order.

Today I have a case at the Superior Court, because one of my daughters was the victim of a horrible crime.

Right now I'm terrified, because the last time my family left a courthouse filled with hope, they took my husband away.

Please pass this law, and that would truly be justice, the justice in which I have always believed and trusted.

As I said to the judge, “When my husband arrives in Honduras, he'll be killed.

And what will you say?

‘I'm sorry.

That's the only thing you'll have to say to me.” Now I need them to feel my desperation as a wife, as a mother.

We will continue believing in God, and we'll keep appealing.

I was staying with my sister.

Unfortunately, things didn't turn out the way we expected.

I had to leave the apartment.

I spent a week in the car with my daughters.

I went to find Gladys.

She put me up in a hotel, because I had applied for a shelter, but it hadn't been approved.

When we went to the hotel, I led them to believe we were on vacation.

They were so happy, so pleased.

The sad part was when they realized that we didn't have a home.

I didn't want to go to a shelter because I pictured myself living with a lot of people, sharing with people I don't even know, but thank God it's only a space for my daughters and me.

So right now I'm staying in Lynn.

And I keep fighting because the shelter is only temporary.

I need to find an apartment, something that fits my budget to be able to give them something stable rather than something uncertain.

Congressional Republicans approved $70 billion in funding for federal immigration enforcement.

The Department of Homeland Security is now fully funded.

In July, ICE arrested nearly 50,000 people.

That's the highest monthly arrest total in all of President Trump's second term.

- So how can I help you today?

- Yes, so I am sitting with Brenda.

She wants to allow me to have guardianship over her three daughters, as she's afraid of being detained.

Okay, so there are two ways to do this.

Even when you have legal documentation, people have been taken.

If something was to happen to her, I want her to, like, take that weight off her shoulders to know that the girls will never have anything missing, that I would provide.

I would learn how to do baleadas from Honduras so that they don't miss their food.

I would do whatever it takes, until we can get them to a place where they all can be together as a family again.

This is a call from and paid for by Milton Mejia at Pine Prairie Correctional.

- You're making me jealous eating baleadas.

- Should I send you delivery?

Do you want a chicken wing from Broadway?

This school year, my absences started to stack up and now I am paying for the consequences, which is summer school.

I don't really plan to go to college.

I would join in the Marines, but right now I don't think it's worth fighting for this country.

Papi, on the first day of school, can I walk with Nathacha?

One of my friends will join with us, and then we're all gonna walk to school.

- He said OK.

So he says yes.

You say ... They're going to cut off the call.

Send a kiss to your dad, I love you so much, I love you!

I love you so much!

The girls, they don't cry no more because of their dad.

I'm still stuck about that emptiness inside my heart, you know, without my dad, but we've gotten used to it, you know?

And I hope this is just a chapter, and then we're gonna look back and we're gonna be like, “Damn, we were going through so much, but we still managed to do things,” you know?

Good morning, good morning!

Good morning, good morning!

Thank you for being here!

Yes, yes, yes.

The PROTECT Act is the strongest law in the country to protect people from ICE and to protect public safety.

You should all be proud of that.

It is such an honor to be here, and I have to celebrate this moment for my dear friend Brenda, who had the courage to put her story out there.

Gladys, I'm so grateful, because you've always been there supporting me in everything.

And I just want to say, let's raise our voices, because we are indeed being heard.

I have seen Brenda completely deteriorated.

Everything fell apart for her.

But then I called her and I said, "Hey, can you join me for the State House?

Can you share your testimony?"

She's like, "Of course.

I want people to know my story.

Because my husband's not a criminal, and because the judicial system has to work for my daughter."

Day in and day out, I wake up in my bed and the first thing I do is thank God for the family he has given me.

And I always say to the Lord that he gave me a family, and he will return me to my family.

My daughters, my wife, and I are going through this process together, and we will fight until the end.

The process has been long.

The test has been long, Lord.

But in the desert is where warriors are made.

I raised my voice, because I know behind me there are many mothers in the same situation.

So I said, “I have to do it - I have to speak up, and may my example help others."

Today our sister Brenda, amen, is going to be baptized in public.

So today we baptize her in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, God.

Lord, be glorified.

Father.

Thank you, God.

Lord, cover her, Father ... ♪ ... and helped by his light, ♪ ♪ I want to continue on his path.

♪ My biggest dream is for my husband to come home.

And from there, everything else will fall into place.

Sometimes there are moments when I don't want to get up, I don't want to go on.

But when I see my daughters waiting for me and a community that sees itself reflected in me, I keep fighting.