Gaby Interview Transcript
- 2 days ago
- 30 min read
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For a summary of this interview with selected quotes, click here.
October 21, 2025, WhatsApp call
Gaby’s Arrest, Detention, and Deportation
Carrie 0:52
If you're up for it, do you mind just starting from the beginning and telling me your story?
Gaby 1:11
Okay, well, I was living in Carlsbad, New Mexico for three years and a half. For sure, I was illegal because I didn't return to Mexico for having my permissions on being in the United States. But it wasn't because I just wanted [to]. It was because I have a problem here in Mexico with the father of my daughter.
So he did–I don't know the word in English–but I can’t return to Mexico, because if I return, they can put me in prison, because he said that I kidnapped his daughter. It wasn't true. You know. So, I can’t return to Mexico, and I can't be in the United States because it was illegal, you know. So my lawyer said, like, you have to stay in the United States unless I can, like, fix your situation here in Mexico. And whenever I say, like you can return, you return. So I was waiting for my lawyer to say, you can return. So, because my visa was expired.
So it was June 27, it was Friday. I was going to the swimming lessons for my babies. And she was with me, my mom, she was on vacation, just to see my kids. So I was driving, and once I returned, I just see in the mirror, and I saw that it was like a lot of police and whatever, and I stopped because they stopped me.
So whenever they arrived to the window, they knocked like, “Hey, how are you, put your window down” and whatever. And I was so scared, because I was sure that it was not the police, like, for—how do you? Like, I was sure that it was ICE. And I was shocked, and they treated me like an animal. They say, “You have to come with me.” And my kids were watching everything. They put me the–I don't know that word– like they put something in your hands, like the
Carrie 4:00
Handcuffs?
Gaby
Hand, hand, what?
Carrie
Handcuff, C, U, F, F, handcuff. Yeah, I don't know the Spanish word.
Gaby 4:09
Esposas, okay? Like, wife.
Carrie 4:14
That's really what the word for handcuff is? Oh my gosh, that's funny.
Gaby 4:21
And then they say, “You can’t take nothing with you. Come with me.” And they put me in the car, and I was like, what's happening? And there's a lot, a lot of police and ICE officers and FBI. DA? It was a huge—like, if I was a criminal. So I was like, what’s going on? I didn't know what was happening and whatever. So I stayed for one hour in the car, waiting for I don't know what.
So the ICE officers told me, “It's time to go.” So I said, “What's going to happen with my my kids and my mom?” And he said, “They're gonna stay here.” So they took me to Roswell, New Mexico, and we arrived to the ICE offices, and I stayed there for four hours, and the ICE officer told me, “You can’t stay here the night, so I'm gonna take you to another place just to pass the night.” So I was like, “Okay, I will wait.”
Of course, I was with handcuffs all the time like a criminal. And guess where they dropped me? In the jail of Roswell. So I stay at night in jail with a lot of real criminals. So I was so scared, because, guess what, when I was in the ICE offices, the ICE office officer told me, “You have a call.” And I was like, “Hello,” and I just take that call. And it was a lady, I don't remember the initials of that department, but it was for like, they have my daughter. Like when the parents don't take care of the kids, they take the kids, I don't know.
Carrie
Yeah, like, CPS, maybe?
Gaby
It was like, it was like, pF, I don't remember. I was so shocked. So I don't remember that the initials, but–
Carrie 6:53
So the lady calls you, and she says, “I have your kids.”
Gaby 6:57
No, just my daughter. Emiliano she doesn't have, just Luciana. She said, “Hi,”--I don't remember the name, even–“I just want to let you know that I have your daughter. Her father is on his way, to take Luciana with him.” I was like, “Why? She doesn't have a relationship with him. Why are you letting her go with him? You don't know if he's in drugs or alcohol or whatever. You don't know if he's gonna hurt her.” I don't know. I was like, “Why are you all letting that?” I was like, crying, crying, crying.
“I just want to let you know that, and I'm gonna give Luciana to her father, so I just want to let you know that you lost your custody.” And I was like, “What?” “He told me that he has custody of your daughter.” And I was like, “That's a lie. I have the custody of her, 100%.” And she's like, “I don't know. My work is just to let you know.” And she ended the call. And I was like, what?
So I go to the jail thinking that I lost my daughter, and I even didn't know how long was gonna be my process, you know? So one day after, 6 am, ICE arrived to the jail just to pick me up, and they told me, “We are going to El Paso, Texas to drop you in a detention center.” And I was like, “Okay.”
So I arrived to that detention center and they say, “You have to take a shower and I'm gonna give you a uniform and clothes and whatever.” But I was like, “I don't know where I'm going,” so a lady told me, “I just want to let you know that you are gonna stay in a room with 75 ladies like you, and if you have a violent situation or abuse or whatever, you have to let us know, like, with an officer and we are going to change your room or whatever.” And I was thinking, okay, so it's like a kind of jail or whatever.
So when they give me my uniform, it was orange. Like, Orange is the New Black, like that movie or series. So when I arrived, it was a lot of beds, but a metal bed, and you have like a little mattress, but you feel the hard of the bed. It was awful. It was like a lot of bathrooms. You do your necessities in front of all the ladies. You take a shower in front of all the ladies. You can’t scream, you can’t do a lot of things, because they punish you.
And the only way that they punish you is like, if you do something, you can’t talk with your family. So they punish our telephones and the tablets. These are just the media, like we can talk with our lawyers or or families or whatever.
But of course, you have to put money because nothing is free over there. Actually, they sell you the water, and if you want a different food, you have to buy it. And all the afternoons they gave us the same sandwich for a week. And they treat you like an animal. They always scream to us, and they treat us like animals.
We feel so vulnerable, because the thing that they want is like, you don't want to be in that place, because the thing that they want to…I don't know how to say…the people that want to fight their case is the only way that they can, doing mental issues. To [get] you to say, “I don't want to be here. I just want my deportation” or whatever. Just to [give] you a hard time, just to quit. You know?”
Carrie 11:58
They kind of want to break your spirit down, it sounds like.
Gaby 12:01
Yeah, but I sleep with lights on, they scream at you like, at 5 am, “It's time to wake up! You have to wake up!” And you have to stand up from your bed and change your clothes. And they just give you two underwears, two bras, two socks and two uniforms. If you have something more, they punish you.
And I know there's a lot of things that my mind is blocking, because I have several traumas when I arrived to my house. It was like I was scared of sleeping with the lights off, like I have to sleep with the lights on. You know, there's a lot of things.
And then I was trying to talk with my deportation officer, and they answered me two weeks after, and I was like, “What's going on?” I stayed there in the detention center for one month and three weeks. And the date that they say, “[her last name],” when they say my name, I said, “Yes, present.” And they say, “You are leaving, take your things with you.” Like, “Oh!” and all the ladies were screaming and hugging me and whatever.
And I went to the offices and guess what? They say, “You are going to another detention.” So I stay five more days in…I don't know how to say in English, but it was a place like, they have all illegal immigrants. Well, immigrants, but it’s just like, you stay a little bit more short, your time there, and they deport you, like in planes. But if you have clothes, and you have like, five minutes to take a shower, but they always screaming at you, you always stay in a room, and there's an officer outside of the room watching you all the time. Like, if you have a mouse…when you have a little mouse in your house and he's running in a ball, or whatever…it’s just like that. Like the police are always watching you, in front of glass, you know.
Carrie 15:06
Yeah, like a little animal in a in a glass cage,
Gaby 15:09
Yeah.
Carrie
Like a hamster.
Gaby 15:12
And you always be in that room for all day, all night. You sleep with the lights on, actually, and they give you food, but you don't have the same…you only have one call for one minute at the time that they say. You have permission one day in a week to go outside in the backyard, and it's just for 20 minutes.
And when they say, like, “All these ladies, come walk with me,” and it was time for my deportation. They put me in the handcuffs in my hands, in my belly, and in my toes, and I was feeling like a criminal.
And they dropped me in Tabasco, the south of Mexico. And I was wondering why they dropped me there, because I'm from the north of Mexico. And they told me, “If I let you go in Juarez or whatever, it's more easy for you to go back to the United States.” And I say, “I didn't enter illegal to the United States. I have visa.” You know? It's not all the situations, all the same problems.
So they dropped me in Tabasco and I had to buy a ticket for the airplane to go back to my house. It was awful, because I don't have money. I just had ten percent of battery on my cell phone, and I was calling to my parents and saying, “I'm fine. I'm here.”
I'm forgetting a lot of details of the treat[ment] that they give me over there, but it was the worst experience ever I have. More, that the experience was in front of my kids. My daughter has problems with police. If she sees a policeman, she's like “Mommy!” She doesn't want to go out of my house because she's thinking that something bad is going to happen.
So I'm taking my daughter to a therapist because she doesn't want to go to her ballet classes or dance classes. She doesn't want to go to school because she's thinking that, even going to the car, something is going to happen. So I'm treating that. My kid, the little one, he's not like my daughter, because he was two years and a half, so it's not–
Carrie 18:08
–he doesn't remember it as much.
Gaby 18:11
Yeah, but–
Carrie 18:15
And how old is your daughter?
Gaby 18:19
On Monday, she's turning six.
Carrie
Awww.
Gaby
Oh, I forgot the more important thing. They took Luciana to a place…I don't know the name of that department; I will tell you at the end of the call…and they say to my mom, “We are going to your house, and you have to give me a few clothes for her.” And my mom’s like, “Why? Where are you taking my granddaughter?” And she said, “To a place that we have to keep your granddaughter, because we are fixing this situation” and whatever.
And my daughter was with a host family, and my daughter was crying. And the family that had my daughter said to my mom at the end, “She was so, so sad. She didn't eat. She didn’t want to do anything, because she wanted to go to her mom,” you know?
And my lawyer from Mexico, they do to me like signed power that I'm giving the custody to my parents so they can take my daughter, you know. But it was so, so hard because Luciana's father said I was kidnapping my own daughter.
So the consul from Mexico talked to ICE and say, “You know something, I have this situation: there is a kid that is kidnapped by that person. So you have to do a deportation.” Or, how do you say in English, when a country gives a criminal to another country?
Carrie 20:23
Yeah, I know what you're talking about, just like a removal or repatriation. I'm not sure what the best word is.
Gaby 20:31
In Spanish, it’s extradición.
Carrie 20:34
Yeah, yeah. We have the same. Yeah, extradition.
Gaby 20:37
Yeah, extradition. Okay, so Luciana's father wanted that. But of course, it was impossible, because I have a immigration issue. So they take me to detention, that's why the extradition doesn't work for that, you know.
But that's why it was really huge, a lot of police, a lot of officers, like FBI, DEA and whatever. Interpol; there was Interpol over there. It was so–I don't know how to say, like, a really big mess–because it was like, a “kidnap” situation. But it wasn't true.
So when the Mexican consul saw that it was a lie and it wasn't true, they were like, “Oh my gosh, we did a really big problem when it was a lie,” you know? So Mexican consul, they give us a lot of...how do you say?…they help us a lot.
But the things had already happened. I was in detention for two months and it was the worst thing that I…it was my worst experience. And when I arrived to Mexico, my husband was like, “Are you in problem?” Yeah, I was like, in…I have—how do you say? Like, attacks from panic?
Carrie 22:23
Yeah, yeah, anxiety attacks, panic attacks.
Gaby
Yeah, because it doesn't end here. Like, I'm fighting for my daughter right here. And Luciana's father wants me in jail, whatever they have to do. They want me in jail. So I'm having caution, because I don't know if I'm driving and he's gonna stop me with the police and whatever. He wants me in jail. That's why he did everything.
More Details About the Detention Centers
But [even] without that situation, that type of person, the immigration or ICE situation is awful. There's a lot of people inside that had a lot of time over there fighting for their cases. Actually, there's a lady that has 23 years [of age], that has had three years in that detention and ICE don't let her go, you know, because she's from Iran. If she returns to Iran, they’re gonna kill her. So she's fighting for, like, asking other countries to accept her, and they say no, because she's from Iran.
So there's a lot, a lot of cases that there's people that are having one year over there. And I was feeling that I was dying over there. Like, if I stay one day more here, I will die. I don't know how people, they fix like, one year over there. And they don't–if you are feeling bad, or if you need a medical doctor or whatever, they have to see you if you are dying because they don't give you nothing. You have to be dying to do like, “Okay, go to the doctor.”
Or, “Excuse me, I have a lot of problems.” And they say, “You have to go to a therapist,” and they give you pills for your anxiety, and they just let you sleep all day. And, no, no, no, it's awful, awful, awful.
Carrie 24:36
Yeah…they'll just give you those pills and not really figure out what the problem is.
Gaby 24:41
Actually, they put on the food pills for the sexual topic…like, you don't want, you don't have…
Carrie 24:56
Libido, or sexual desire?
Gaby 25:00
Yeah. And then your hair drops off as a result of that pill that they give you in the food. They don't give us fruit and vegetables. All the vegetables that they give you are in the freezer; they are not natural. You know something, just one day they gave us an orange, because there was like a supervision for human something–resources, or, I don't know–they have to prove that they're giving us the best food–
Carrie 25:45
When someone's watching, then they give it to you.
Gaby 25:49
Yeah. Because that day they gave us a huge chicken. And we were like, “Oh my gosh, this is like caviar or something,” you know. But after that, they told us, like, “Yeah, it was a supervision for human resources or something like that.”
And we knew that there was a lady that is fighting for the rights for the people, and they don't let her enter the detention. Because if she entered to that detention, ICE is gonna be in problems because they treat you like animals, and they have you like animals. Guess what? I have my dog, and I don't treat my dog like that.
Carrie 26:39
Wow, that's horrible.
Gaby 26:45
They don't give you…how do you say?...they give you the worst shampoo, the worst toothpaste and whatever, because they want it that you have to buy online, the shampoo, all the personal things that you have to buy. You have to use, you have to buy it.
But if you buy it online, in the page that they give you, you have the products one week after. So you have to wait. There's that…how do you say?... all this money over there. So if you want to do something, you have to give money. If you want to fight your case, you have to pay money.
And there's a lot of mental issues that you are fighting inside because they treat you so bad that you feel vulnerable, so you want to quit.
Actually, I have a friend that is from Venezuela inside. She's always crying because she knows that if she asks for deportation, she's gonna lose all her family, because they’re in El Paso. She arrived to the United States for one month and a half, crossing the jungle and passing hungry and a lot of things. I was like, “You have to do a movie of that month that you passed crossing all Mexico and to arrive to the United States.”
She doesn't have a lawyer because she doesn't have money, of course. So she's there, waiting for–I don't know–she's waiting. But if she doesn't ask for deportation, she's gonna be there for a long time. They don't let you ask for asyl–I don’t know how to say–when they let you stay in the United States–
Carrie 29:06
Oh, asylum?
Gaby 29:08
Asylum. Yeah.
Carrie 29:10
Wait, what did you say about asylum? They don't want you asking for that?
Gaby 29:14
No, because they do not let you. You have to pay–I don't know how to say in English, actually–if you pay that fianza [bail], it's in Spanish, they can give you the opportunity of being in the United States with a monitor. And your case is working out of the detention center, but ICE is checking you. But they are not letting that happen anymore because…I don't know why.
So I can give you the phone of my friend, she talks in English, and she's in El Paso with a monitor. But you know what? She's 36 years living in the United States. She has five kids, legal, citizens of the United States, and she's having that problem just because she didn't marry with her husband, like legal, you know?
There's a lot of different stories. My situation is different than my friend, but she's in El Paso, like checking with ICE. She's always scared, because one day the monitor turned off and the ICE officers were outside of their house, knocking on the door like, “I know you are here! You have to come with us.” And she was like, “No, I’m in my house, but I'm not doing nothing.” So it was because the monitor turned off, but you have to hear her story.
Carrie 31:00
Yeah, I would love to.
Gaby 31:03
And there's a lot of friends that they're from Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil…they’re having a lot of different stories, because my situation is not the same as the other one. But treat[ment] that they gave us. It was the worst.
Carrie 31:22
Everyone's getting that same bad treatment, no matter what their situation is.
Gaby
Yeah.
Carrie 31:31
I'm sorry. That's horrible.
Gaby 31:34
Yeah, and they punish me for 10 years with no visa and no return to the United States. If I return, they’re going to put me in jail for two to 20 years. It depends on whatever I do. I was like, I don't want to ever return to the United States after this. My little baby, born in the United States, he's a citizen, but I don't know what's going to happen after that.
Gaby’s Personal Situation with Her Daughter’s Father
Carrie 32:10
Yeah, yeah. So your son, what's his name?
Gaby
Emiliano.
Carrie
Emiliano. He was born in the United States, but now Luciana and Emiliano are both living with you in Mexico?
Gaby
Yeah.
Carrie
What part of Mexico do you live in?
Gaby
In Chihuahua. The border.
Carrie
Okay. So have you had problems with Luciana's dad since you got back?
Gaby 32:42
Before that,
Carrie 32:45
Because does he live there too?
Gaby 32:48
What?
Carrie
Does he live in Chihuahua?
Gaby 32:52
Yeah. So I have legal problems here, for that situation. He has four years not seeing Luciana, and actually he didn't care about her. He never do something for her. So, yeah, the only thing that he wants to see me bad. Yeah, because I got married with my husband, he's angry because of that.
So if he really cares about Luciana, he will…I don't know how to say…he could have gone to the United States, and he never wanted to see Luciana. And he's saying that I kidnapped her, so it was impossible for him, like traveling to see his daughter. But he's always on trips, and whatever. But I say, if you care for your daughter, you can go wherever in the whole world she is, you have to go over there.
Carrie 34:10
So he's just trying to control you and scare you.
Gaby 34:17
Yeah. So at this time, I'm living with my parents for security, because he's so crazy and he can do something to me. My husband is living in another city one hour from here. Just because security, because if I go with my husband, it’s the same city as Luciana's father. So my lawyer said, “If you come here, he's gonna do something or hurt you. So at this time you have to live with your parents,” because my parents live in a private area. It's not easy going inside my house. So he feels more comfortable with us being there with my parents, because if he wants to do something, it's more hard to do something to us.
Carrie 35:16
No, that makes sense. That’s sad, though. I'm sorry you have to be separated from your husband just to stay safe.
Gaby 35:23
Yeah, and my husband is so angry because he said, like, we are separate because I'm the angry person. Yeah, and my kids are growing up with…like I'm losing all the festivals and whatever that they have. Yeah, I'm losing my…dropping them to the school, and I'm losing a lot of moments just because, because that person don't want to see you happy.
Carrie 36:00
Yeah, that's really hard. That’s frustrating.
Gaby 36:03
Actually, I don't know, how does the ICE officer find me.
Carrie
Yeah, that's what I was wondering.
Gaby
I was always on my house, like, I mean, just go into the grocery and drop Luciana to the school and just my house, you know?
Carrie 36:27
Yeah. So do you think that–let me see if I understand this right. You think that Luciana's Dad went to the Mexican consulate and said, “She kidnapped my daughter,” and then they contacted the US authorities. Is that what happened?
Gaby 36:46
Yeah, but he went here in Mexico, not in the United States.
Carrie 36:53
So he went in Mexico, and so then they believed him at first.
Gaby
Uh huh, yeah, with no proofs.
Carrie
With no proof. And then they told, I guess they called ICE or someone, and said, “You guys need to find this lady.”
Gaby 37:12
You know what I'm thinking? You know what I'm thinking?
Carrie
What?
Gaby
He's a super bad person that I'm for sure that if you give to ICE an immigrant, they give you money. You know that? So I'm sure he asked for the money just to see me like that.
Carrie 37:30
Ohh, okay. So maybe he was kind of trying to give you up, and he was hoping to get payment from ICE?
Gaby 37:45
Yeah, for sure. I don't have to think about it, because all the appointments on—how do you say that?---tribunals, or when they say, like, you have appointment, you have to go to that judge. He's always saying that he wants money and that I'm rich, and he wants my money and whatever. So if he doesn't care about the money, he will not do that bad for his daughter, you know? Because the only victim here is Luciana. I can be in jail if you want, 10 years, but the problems, or the mental issues, and whatever the experience—it was for Luciana, not for me.
Carrie
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Gaby
The only one who hurts here, it was Luciana.
Carrie 38:43
Yeah, I'm sorry. Well, I mean you were harmed too, but I know what you're saying. Like, you're saying you would put up with it if it was just about you. But it's not just about you.
Gaby 38:56
Yeah.
Carrie
It's about her, too.
Gaby
If he's caring for Luciana…he's not acting like he cares for Luciana, you know?
REDACTED
Gaby
Well, my situation, it was sexual abuse, and I was so scared because he is liar–lawyer?--liar, both of them—lawyer and liar.
Carrie
[laughs] Right.
Gaby
So I know that he has a lot of people that if he needs something, he's gonna have the, how do you say?
Carrie 40:55
The resources?
Gaby
The help.
Carrie
The network, yeah.
Gaby 40:58
So I didn't say nothing and whatever. And when I realized that I was pregnant, I was like, “No!” I was like, just crying and crying, crying, and my dad forced me to get married with him. I was like, “I don't want it. I don't want it. I don't want it.”
But it was a huge problem in my house, because he has a macho man thinking. How can you…the people, what are they going to say? Like, my daughter is not married with, you know, the father of the baby.
Carrie
Yeah. He was embarrassed.
Gaby
And I was like, “I don't care!” So I got married. It was one of the worst experience ever; the ICE one, and [getting] married with him. Because it was a violent situation—like mental violence, and economical also. So thanks to the covet, I said, like, “I quit.” You know? And when I did like—how do you say—I went to the police department to say, “I have sexual abuse,” they told me, “Oh, I'm so sorry; you have only one year to talk.” So you're like…it doesn't work.
Carrie 42:33
The statute of limitations or whatever.
Gaby 42:37
Yeah. And then I'm for sure that he doesn't care about [his] daughter because she wasn’t planned and he doesn’t love her, you know? When I said to him, like “The time that I will get married in the church is gonna be forever, and it's gonna be with the love of my life,” you know? So when we, when I was talking with him, for sure, “I'm not going to get married in church with you because you treat me like an animal” (like the ICE officer).
And he doesn't care about nothing. I have to pay everything. Also, they put me on a schedule for working, because he's always busy, and he has to go to the gym and whatever, and I have to take care of my baby all the time. And he didn't give me money and—nothing! The house that we were living in was from my father. Like they loan the house, and they say, “I'm gonna give you the house so you can live over there. And you don't have to owe the money,”---that makes sense for you?---like, you don't have to pay for rent.
Carrie 44:04
Oh, okay. Oh, nice.
Gaby 44:06
And when I quit, I said, I have to divorce this man, he was so angry because he thinks that I will be there forever, you know? And when he realized that he lost me, it was a problem. The problems begin.
So at the time that he saw that I got married with my husband, that time begins my bad things because he begins to say, “I want to be a father. I want to be part of Luciana's life. I wanna…” Just like, come on, Luciana has two years and you never cared about her. Why [do] you arrive two years after and say, “I wanna be a father–”?
Because he saw me happy, because he saw that I'm gonna do well, I'm gonna get married with the love of my life, and he's so angry because of that.
Carrie 45:11
Yeah, yeah, no, that's not right. That doesn't add up. He's just like–
Gaby 45:18
—so my baby suffered an abuse, you know? And it's so different, because I know that Luciana has had a lot of problems since she was in my belly. You have to add the situation that she did in ICE, and the things that we are fighting right now.
Because, of course, we have the problems with money, because we don't have the same money in the United States as here. And we start at the beginning once again here, because we don't have a business that has like—we have to start at the beginning once again, like I told you. And my husband is so angry because we don't have these things…like Luciana, in the United States has English; here, no. Like the same opportunities. Just because that person is angry.
Carrie 46:23
Yeah, yeah.
Gaby 46:26
And he stopped the opportunity just to my son, and he's a citizen. I know that my situation, my legal situation, is not the one that I wanted.
Carrie
Right. Of course.
Gaby
It was not for me, because for me, I will do it legal. But the situation forced me to do it like that.
Carrie 46:47
Yeah, yeah. So did you come originally to get away from Luciana's dad?
Gaby 46:55
I didn't understand that.
Carrie 46:57
When you came to Carlsbad originally, did you come because you were trying to get away from him?
Gaby 47:05
No, no, no, no. Actually, we went for vacation. And I had problems with my pregnancy and my husband worked there before. He was working since I met him. So he stopped and returned to Mexico, and we got married and whatever, and we went to vacation over there. But I have, like, an abortion [miscarriage risk]. I was pregnant, like in five months over there, and I went to the doctor, and they said, “You can’t travel because you have to be on rest for a long time.”
So we stayed there and Emiliano was born there. And my husband said, “You know something, if we are here for a reason, we will stay here for a reason. Like, if God gave us this situation, we have to…you know? Like find the best?”
Carrie
Yeah, like maybe this happened for a reason.
Gaby
Yeah. “So if we are going to stay here, we are going to stay here. We are going to do some money for two years, and we are going to come back to Mexico. We are here. We have to [take] the opportunity; we are going to stay here.”
So after that, when Luciana's father knew that I was in the United States, imagine that he was like, “Oh, no, you have to return.” And he began to do a lot of things here in Mexico, just to finish my plans and whatever. I didn't–how do you say it?--it was something that will never happen because I will not, in my mind or in my person, I will never do something to someone like he did to me. But there's a lot of bad people that do a lot of bad things, but I never imagine that I will pass for that.
Carrie 49:16
Yeah, I know. Well, they're deceptive, and because you don't think that way, you would never do that to someone, so you're not expecting someone else to do that.
Gaby 49:30
Yeah. And add that they have kids over there.
Carrie
Yeah.
Gaby
I will not do something like that for nobody. And more, if they have kids, I will not do that. Like—how do you say?---putting on danger to a family, and they have kids. I will not do nothing to babies, because I have a baby, you know?
Gaby’s Time in the U.S. Before Her Arrest
Carrie 50:01
Yeah, yeah, no, that makes sense. Wow. So you met your husband in Mexico?
Gaby 50:10
Yeah. And we got married here, and we were living here, so we went to vacation and the things went worse. And we stay there just for my pregnancy. But after that, he said, “You know something, I have to start working, because we have to [have] money, because we have to eat, we have to–everything, right? So we stayed there.
And he said, “You know something, we are going to stay here just for two years, just to have something secured in Mexico, like a house or whatever. And after that, it was impossible for me to return. So that's why we stay more than two years over there, because I have legal problems here.
Actually, my husband returned to Mexico to [renew] his visa. And he returned to United States without permission, and at the time that I was passing that situation with ICE, he was here in Mexico because he returned to Mexico to [renew] a license. So when everything happened, he was here in Mexico. So for him, it was impossible to return.
So my parents had to go–well, my father had to go to Carlsbad to pick up all my things and give the keys of the house to the landlord and return with my kids and all the furniture and whatever. So my husband never returned to the United States.
Carrie 51:47
Okay, I see. What kind of work was he doing when you guys were both here?
Gaby 51:57
He drove a truck. He was in the oil fields and whatever.
Deportation Chaos and Other People’s Situations
Carrie 52:06
Yeah, yeah, wow. But I think you said your mom was already here in Carlsbad when you got taken by ICE, right? She was with you?
Gaby 52:22
Yeah, because she was on vacation because she wanted to see my kids. So she said, “Can I go just one week?” And I said, “Okay.” I was alone with my kids because my husband was here.
So I can't imagine if my mom wasn't there. I don't know what—I don't have family there. I just had a few friends. But my baby was, well, Emiliano was so little, just to say to my friend, “Take care of him.” I was two months in the detention center. Imagine that. I don’t know. I can't imagine if my mom wasn't there.
Carrie
Yeah, yeah. And when did all this happen? When did ICE take you?
Gaby 53:07
On June 27 of this year [2025].
Carrie 53:10
Of this year? Oh, you said that. You said that. That's right.
Gaby 53:13
And I returned to Mexico on August 10.
Carrie 53:18
Okay, wow. How did the rest of–did Emiliano's pregnancy and birth and everything go okay when you were on bedrest?
Gaby 53:33
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I take care of my pregnancy, and my husband–I have a lot of help from my husband.
Carrie
That's good.
Gaby
And I passed my birthday in the detention center.
Carrie 53:45
Awww, oh man! When is your birthday?
Gaby
July 18.
Carrie
Okay. What a terrible place to have a birthday!
Gaby 53:55
Yeah, I know. One year before, we were on a trip, because my husband wanted to give that for a gift. And one year after, in the detention center, like on [??].
Carrie 54:12
Wow. What was your experience living in Carlsbad like before everything happened with ICE?
Gaby 54:19
It was great. I don't have bad things to say. Of course, it's difficult because I don't have family there. It was starting from the beginning for everything. It's hard because the American people is a little bit cold. Like, if you put the difference with Mexico, Mexico is more kind, like, “Hi!” If they don't know you, they say hi. But in the United States, not all the people have that open mind, you know? And there's people that treat you good if they don't, they know that you are from. Mexico. Some people don't like the Mexicans, so you have to survive with that treatment. There's racist people, but not all. I have to say, there's more good people than bad people.
I live secure because know that I have my problems so far away. But it was good. I would prefer being in another city. But my husband said, “Here is the work.”
Carrie
Right.
Gaby
If we move, we have to start once again. I don't know if it's another city will do good work, because, of course. Oh, because New Mexico is a sanctuary state.
Carrie
Ohh, right.
Gaby
The police can’t ask about your immigration situation. That's why we stay in that place too, because–it WAS–it's not anymore a sanctuary state.
Carrie 56:11
I know. There's getting less of those. Yeah, wow. Let me think. What else was I gonna ask you?
The second place you said you were only at for five days?
Gaby 56:29
It's in El Paso, Texas too. But it was, it was, let me search that word, because I'm for sure that you know that place.
Carrie 56:40
I know. I'm trying to think. I should be able to think of it, but I don't know.
Gaby 56:46
In Spanish, it's like a white tent.
Carrie 56:52
Oh, okay, yeah.
Gaby
You know?
Carrie
Like a temporary shelter?
Gaby 57:01
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But there's a huge tent, a white tent, over there.
Carrie
Okay, oh, wow.
Gaby
There's a lot of rooms. In every room, they have an officer watching you, but the staying over there, it's not as long like the other detention. It’s just for a short time. But actually, I knew a Colombian girl that has 20 days over there, and she was waiting for the deportation. So for me, it was five days, but for her, there's almost a month.
Carrie 57:40
And so did you know that you were going there to get deported?
Gaby 57:49
Yeah, because they told me before they took me there. I was thinking that I was going to my house when they say my name, because it’s the normal thing. But guess what? That week that they moved me all the—how do you say?--the rules change every week.
Carrie
Yes.
Gaby
So that week they changed the time. One week before, all the Mexicans, they dropped you in Juarez, in the border. And in the week that they said my name, they say, “You are going to the tents (in Spanish, “carpa”). And I say, “Why? What's going after that?”
And they say, “I don't know. The only thing that I know is that you are going to the tent, and after that, you are going to be deported, but deported where I don't know, I think in the south of Mexico.” “But how many days I'm gonna be there?” And they say, “We don't know nothing. You have to wait til the airplanes, and til the president of Mexico say, like you have to–like, they pay for the trip, and you have to wait until the airplane gets full and they deport you.”
So I had to wait five days there, because they say every four days there's a trip to deport Mexicans. Because all the countries have different deportations there, you know? So you have to wait for the Mexican–your consul calls to you, like, “Hi, Mexican Consul. We are going to put you in a trip, going to Tabasco, and you're going to be deported there, and so you have to wait and whatever.
Carrie 59:47
Yeah, wow. So how far away was Tabasco from Chihuahua?
Gaby 59:53
Like, three days in the car.
Carrie 59:55
Wow. Geez.
Gaby
Yeah, but there's a lot of people that enter to United States illegal. That's why they say, “We are doing this because we want to punish you,” but I say, “I enter legal; I have visa over there.”
Carrie 1:00:18
Yeah, I know. I know, Gaby. I'm really sorry about what you've been through. I mean, this is why I wanted to talk to you, because I'm really horrified by what's happening. And I just–obviously it's bad for you, but I also think it's really bad for our country to treat people like this. I think it's bad for us to lose all of these immigrants. I think it's bad that rules aren't being followed and laws aren't being followed and no one knows what's going on, and it's just really bad.
Gaby 1:01:05
And my situation, it was just for me, because I know a lot of stories that take to another detention center that also has kids with them.
Carrie
Mmmm. Wow.
Gaby
And I knew a situation of a Venezuelan lady that she got deported to her country, to Venezuela, and she was waiting for her sons, I think there were two. And at the time that I got deported, she was waiting. She has three months waiting for her kids in the United States don't say where they are. So she lost her kids over there because they separated, they put in another detention center. So she was fighting for her kids, but she can't return to United States. The government don't say where they are.
Carrie
Oh my gosh.
Gaby
She's fighting from Venezuela for kids.
Carrie
And she has no idea where they are?
Gaby 1:02:12
No and they don't give any information for where they are. So she's being crazy because she just wants her kids back, you know?
Carrie 1:02:23
Yeah. So they detained her and detained her kids separately, and then they sent her back to Venezuela?
Gaby 1:02:32
Yeah. And the kids stay in the United States. After that, like three months after, she's fighting for her kids, but they don't say where they are. She can’t say to a parent or a friend, “You can drop my kids,” no, because they don't give information where they are.
Carrie
Wow, that's horrible.
Gaby
Yeah, I don't know if that the lady has the children, the kids with her or not. I don’t know.
Carrie 1:03:16
That's really sad. Well, yeah, anyone whose number you have that you feel like would want to talk to me, I'd love to talk to them.
Gaby 1:03:27
I will ask them, because we have a group, a WhatsApp group.
Carrie
Oh, cool, yeah.
Gaby
And I already told them, and they say, “”For sure, we want to talk with her. They have to know all the bad things that happen over there.” Yeah, so one of them speaks English, the other one, no, but I don't think there's going to be a problem, because [??] is translating and whatever.
Carrie 1:03:53
That's true, okay. And I do speak a little bit of Spanish, but it's not that great, but maybe between everyone…
Gaby
But you understand some words, right?
Carrie 1:04:03
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I understand. I mean, I understand a good bit. But I'm just not–I'll get confused, and I won't hear things right, or I won't be able to think of the words or whatever, but I know a fair amount of Spanish,
Gaby 1:04:18
Yeah, because legal words for me are hard.
Carrie 1:04:22
I know, right? And I'm the same way in English; I barely understand what I'm saying when it comes to some of this stuff. Well, thank you so much. Gabby. I can't remember–did I send you my website, my blog?
Gaby
No, you can send it to me.
Carrie
I'll send it to you just so you kind of know the types of things that I write, so you don't feel like you're just giving all this information blind. Okay, I'll send that to you.
Gaby 1:04:56
All the work that you are doing is just for letting the people what does ICE do? Or is going something legal against ICE ?
Carrie 1:05:12
It's not for anything legal. It's just to let people show that people understand what's happening. Like my friends. I have a lot of friends who really like Donald Trump, and they really support his policies. Some of them, I'm just like, you're never going to change your mind, you know.
But some of them, I think that if they knew, then they might change their mind, and they might be like, “Oh, that's really bad.” And I'll be like, “Yeah, it's really bad. That's what everyone's been saying,” you know? So that's more my goal.
No, I'm not a lawyer. I'm not doing anything legal, but it's more just so people can be more informed. And I do encourage people, and I do this, you know, like, write to my representatives and say, “Hey, I don't, I don't agree with these policies. And can we, you know, stop doing some of these things?” and stuff like that. So it's more that type of activism. I would say.
Gaby 1:06:18
Oh okay. Yeah, because the day that I talked to ______, she just said, it’s like research. But I didn't ask her more about that topic, because it was the day that I was arriving to Mexico, and I was so in shock.
REDACTED
Carrie
Okay, thank you, Gabby. Have a good day at work.
Gaby
You too.
Carrie
Thank you. Okay, I'll be thinking of you and just praying for that you can be reunited with your husband soon.
Gaby
Okay, thank you, hopefully, yeah
Carrie
All right, bye, Gabby.
Carrie 1:09:25
Bye, take care.
Carrie
You too.
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