Taken Into Custody
Eric Sanchez Goitia went to his routine immigration check-in last week, just like he’d been doing for years. Same building, same procedure, same hope that he would return home to his wife.
Instead, ICE agents took him into custody. Now the 38-year-old faces deportation to Venezuela, a country that doesn’t even recognize him as a citizen.
Eric has lived in America for 26 years, since he was just 11 years old.
A Stateless Man
Eric’s family fled Venezuela when he was a child, escaping a brutal regime. In the chaos, his citizenship documents were lost or destroyed, leaving him in legal limbo.
Now Eric exists nowhere on paper. Venezuela won’t claim him, America won’t keep him. He has no recognized citizenship anywhere in the world.
For over two decades, Eric has done everything right. He’s worked, paid taxes, and shown up for every immigration appointment. He’s tried repeatedly to gain legal status, but Congress has failed to fix a broken system. And Eric pays the price.
American Innocence
I knew Eric’s wife Desiree when we were kids, back when everyone called her Didi. What I can tell you is that they are an American family in every sense that counts.
We lived in Utah then, close enough that you could throw a stone from my dad’s apartment to her family’s place.
We grew up in a culture that valued propriety, where profanity was unacceptable and twenty dollars could cover movie tickets and snacks for three kids. We’d walk safely to the theater to see the Spice Girls movie again and again.
Every morning at 7 a.m., you’d find us together straightening our hair in her bedroom before school. Friday nights always meant the skating rink, and if we were lucky, her older sister would let us raid her closet.
But Sundays were special.
Didi’s dad had this incredible family tradition that felt like the heart of Americana. Every Sunday, they make an elaborate turkey dinner. But there was a catch that made it even more meaningful: to attend the dinner, I would have to go to church with them that day.
I wasn’t raised in the same Christian denomination, but I went anyway because those dinners felt like Thanksgiving every week. To me, that was a no-brainer.
The ritual of church together, then gathering around the table for this feast, created something I’d never experienced before. It was family tradition at its finest, the kind that builds character and creates lasting bonds.
Utah has this way of feeling like innocent America: families everywhere, beautiful snow-capped mountains, where traditions still matter. Best of all, it’s a place where kids can just be kids.
Now, the family that showed me so much togetherness is being ripped apart.
Desiree writes:
“This beautiful life that my husband Eric and I have built together for the last 8 years is the most precious thing in the world to me.”
More Than Statistics
Politicians talk about targeting MS-13 members and cartel criminals, and that’s who enforcement actions are supposed to hit. But we’ve seen this administration get more aggressive, and this is what happens when enforcement has lost its clarity.
Eric isn’t a gang member or a criminal.
He’s a husband, a professional wedding photographer, and a fitness coach surrounded by people who love him.
Fighting for Eric
Eric’s friends and family are raising money for his legal fight. They’ve set up a fund to help cover attorney costs and any potential bail. They’re also asking people to contact their Congressional representatives and share Eric’s story.
Without action, Eric could be sent to Venezuela within days. Or worse, to an infamous prison in El Salvador.
Eric has no family in Venezuela. No home there. No legal identity there. America is the only home he’s ever really known.
Congressional Failure
This isn’t Eric’s fault. It’s Congress’s fault. They’ve had decades to fix immigration. They haven’t. Instead, they’ve left millions of people in legal limbo.
They fundraise on this issue, and fail to act for both the safety of our citizens and the future of our families.
Eric followed every rule. He showed up for every appointment. He tried to do it the right way. But there was no right way for someone in his situation.
Congress created this mess. Now Eric suffers for it.
This isn’t about open borders. This isn’t about amnesty. This is about recognizing that some enforcement actions destroy more than they protect.
A Political Reckoning
I understand that political pendulums swing back. An influx of immigration caused this pendulum swing toward aggressive enforcement. Now we should expect the backswing.
But I want to warn people who’ve made deportation the centerpiece of this administration and turned it into an ideology: they need to understand what that looks like at kitchen tables and how cruel it comes off.
Just like Americans felt devastated economically by COVID shutdowns, you can’t tear husbands and breadwinners from their communities and think people will forget.
Americans who supported targeted enforcement against dangerous criminals didn’t sign up for this level of family separation. I think conservatives are going to pay for it at the polls, especially in western and swing states, mark my words.
Why This Story Matters
This is a story worth telling because Eric represents thousands of families caught in the same impossible situation. People who came as children, built American lives, and now face deportation to countries they barely remember.
Most importantly, this story matters because it forces us to confront what we really mean when we talk about being tough on immigration. Are we targeting dangerous criminals, or are we destroying American families? Are we protecting our communities, or are we tearing them apart?
While showing the human cost of this enforcement might make us uncomfortable, you have to remember how uncomfortable our friend Eric is in some detention cell for the crime of existing. And how uncomfortable Desiree is, knowing her husband and their future hang in limbo.
Human life deserves deeper consideration, and this story is uncomfortable because we’re not doing that correctly.
Eric has been American in every way but paperwork for 26 years. Eric belongs here. And deep down, most Americans know it.
This article was written with the assistance of AI. Please verify information and consult additional sources as needed.
