Jessica, a 33-year-old special education teacher from Jamaica, Queens, sat on a stoop near the immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza, her eyes damp with tears.
Her husband, Jean Carlos, was inside for a hearing regarding his asylum case, and Jessica had decided to accompany him, feeling a troubling sense of unease.
As she waited in a nearby park throughout the morning, the couple exchanged WhatsApp messages to stay connected; however, by the afternoon, hours had passed without any word from him.
“I don’t even want to get up,” Jessica said, expressing worry over his safety.
Jessica, who is a U.S. citizen with Ecuadorian roots, and Jean Carlos, who arrived from Ecuador last year, are among many families facing separation due to a crackdown by ICE agents, who have intensified arrests around immigration courthouses in Lower Manhattan.
The recent actions from the Trump administration aim to significantly increase deportations, impacting families as they wait for loved ones to return from scheduled court appearances.
Dazed and tearful faces filled the streets around Foley Square as people anxiously awaited news of family members detained by ICE agents after their court appearances.
Jessica received a series of alarming messages from Jean Carlos late Monday morning.
“Ahh, so many ICE police, I hope nothing happens,” he texted in Spanish around 11:04 a.m.
“Don’t scare me like that,” she replied moments later, but his responses only grew more concerning.
“They’re outside of the room,” he wrote, raising alarm about the situation clearly escalating.
The couple had met during a family quinceañera in Ecuador back in 2020, where Jean Carlos’s warmth toward their children instantly drew Jessica’s attention.
While managing a long-distance relationship, they married in Ecuador in 2021 and began the lengthy process for a spousal visa to reunite in New York City.
Three years later, Jessica gave birth to their daughter, navigating her pregnancy alone while Jean Carlos was still waiting for visa approval.
The separation weighed heavily on them as the couple faced substantial challenges.
While Jean Carlos applied for asylum, he continued to work, risking exposure to gang threats as he sold hamburgers in Ecuador.
Against tremendous odds, he made his way to the United States, enduring physical and emotional trauma along the journey, including being robbed and kidnapped, eventually arriving on crutches.
Their reunion in New York City was joyful, and Jessica introduced Jean Carlos to the sights of the city, including the Staten Island Ferry and Times Square, experiences that filled him with wonder.
He was amazed at the lights in the city, reminiscent of ones he had only ever seen in movies.
With dreams of enjoying New York’s attractions together, they planned summer outings, including a horse-drawn carriage ride in Central Park.
Despite their fragile situation, Jean Carlos worked hard, taking construction jobs while living in constant fear of potential immigration enforcement at job sites.
On Monday morning, Jessica accompanied him to court, leaving their two-year-old daughter with a caretaker, a decision that felt foreboding.
“It was like he knew,” Jessica recalled, reflecting on Jean Carlos’s emotional farewell with their daughter, saying, ‘If I don’t see you later, Mommy’s coming back.’
Expecting a standard court visit, they faced the harsh reality of the Trump administration’s push to expand the use of ‘expedited removal’ for individuals who had been in the country for less than two years, which significantly hiked the arrest rates of noncriminal immigrants.
During that week, the situation intensified at the Lower Manhattan courthouse as ICE agents conducted numerous arrests, targeting individuals immediately outside the courtrooms.
The mass arrests began early on Monday as an alarming number of individuals, including those whose cases were dismissed, were apprehended by ICE officials right after their hearings.
Judges inside the courtrooms struggled to maintain authority as ICE agents took action one after another, demonstrating a disconcerting power dynamics within the system.
Within hours of these developments, it became clear to attorneys that the immigration judges had limited power to stop arrests even if their motions were denied.
“Anyone who is here two years or less is at risk of this, within this escalating climate of arrests,” stated Andrés Santamaria, an attorney with the immigrant-led advocacy group Make the Road New York.
Through escalating tensions and uncertainty, Jessica remained by her phone while dread washed over her as she waited for news from Jean Carlos after the first arrests began around 12:46 p.m.
In a brief video call, Jean Carlos reassured her with expressions of love, sharing the status of his case that had not been dismissed, yet his fate remained uncertain.
“They’re taking people. Love. What the fuck,” his message read, causing Jessica’s heart to race with fear for his safety.
Following this message, silence fell, and hours passed with no further communication from her husband.
Still seated on the stoop several blocks away, Jessica’s anxiety mounted.
Uncertainty gnawed at her as she contemplated her next steps, realizing the distressing truth: he had been detained.
“How do you expect people to do things the right way if you’re going to arrest them like this?” Jessica lamented, questioning the fairness of the system that had torn their family apart.
As she pondered how to return home to their daughter, Jessica felt an overwhelming wave of grief wash over her.
image source from：https://www.thecity.nyc/2025/06/06/ice-arrests-us-citizens-family-separation-manhattan/
