"When they saw their house engulfed in flames, as if a fire-breathing dragon were slowly swallowing it, the Gutierrez-Pulido family felt they had lost too much: the birth photos of their three children, now reduced to ashes; the collection of Princess House pots, disfigured by the fire; the children's musical instruments, reduced to rubble; even the jacket their eldest son, 17, had bought for his high school graduation."
"Three days later, while he was clearing the rubble of the house where they had lived for 20 years, agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took the father, Jose Mendoza Gutierrez, and the family thought that now they were completely lost."
"My house burned down, now pray for me so that immigration doesn't catch me. The family, like anyone else in their undocumented status, lived with that fear. Gutierrez wasn't joking about the possibility of being detained; he simply felt like the most wretched man on Earth."
The Gutierrez-Pulido family experienced catastrophic loss when their home of 20 years burned down on January 18, 2026, destroying irreplaceable possessions including family photos, children's instruments, and sentimental items. Three days later, while clearing the rubble in Nacogdoches, Texas, ICE agents arrested Jose Mendoza Gutierrez, the 45-year-old father who had immigrated from Mexico at age 15. The family, living in undocumented status, had feared immigration enforcement even before the fire. Gutierrez had expressed anxiety about potential detention to his wife and neighbors the day before his arrest. The fire occurred while the family was away at church, attending a celebration for their youngest child's eighth birthday.
Read at english.elpais.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]