Yesterday, Fredy Mencia and his family recorded an urgent video appeal asking President Barack Obama to stop his deportation and keep their family together.
Fredy, a Michigan husband and father of three young U.S. citizens, is facing imminent deportation to Honduras this Friday.
“We know you have the power to help us,” Fredy, surrounded by his children and wife, tells the President in the video.
“I’m telling you this because I know you’re a father. You have two beautiful daughters and a wife, and I know how you feel when you sit at the table and you can have dinner together with your family.”
Even though Fredy is a church leader in his Ann Arbor community, has lived and worked in Michigan for over 15 years, and has no criminal record, ICE’s Detroit Field Office has aggressively targeted him for deportation.
In response, over 150 Ann Arbor community members rallied in Fredy’s support last weekend, and a petition asking for a stop to his deportation has already garnered over 4,000 signatures.
Advocates have long noted this rogue Field Office has a record of alarming conduct under the leadership of Director Rebecca Adducci, including stalking an elementary school in search of undocumented immigrants.
Because he has no criminal record and has deep roots in the United States and his Michigan home, Fredy is exactly the kind of immigrant who should not be deported under President Obama’s new guidelines.
But due to the actions of the Detroit ICE Field Office, he’s facing separation from his family within a few precious days.
As the primary breadwinner, Fredy is worried about his family’s wellbeing, and with the Department of State recently issuing an official travel warning to Honduras, exposing his wife and U.S. citizen children to danger is out of the question.
“I basically have to leave my whole entire family here by themselves, and go back to a country that is not safe right now,” Fredy says. “I don’t want to go back to that. I won’t take my kids either, or my wife.”
Fredy says that the prospect of separation has been emotionally traumatizing, especially for his younger children.
“It’s not easy when they see mama crying,” he said. “It’s not easy as a husband when you go to bed and see your wife crying.”
With the Detroit ICE Field Office refusing to budge, Fredy and his family are now appealing directly to President Obama for help.
“We’ve been helping our community as much as we can,” Fredy pleads to President Obama. “We know as a family, that you have the power to keep us together.”
“Please help us out,” Fredy’s oldest child Alejandro says at the end of the video.
Watch Fredy, his wife, and their children ask President Barack Obama to stop his deportation and keep their family together.
