Leonardo Morales was about to drive his children to school one September morning when federal agents in bulletproof vests arrested him for violating a deportation order.
“They said that they wanted to talk to him and they tried to take him behind another car so we wouldn’t see and they handcuffed him,” said his daughter, Valeria, 16. “It was awful.”
Her dad has been held at Krome detention center ever since.
The family’s struggle is one that terrifies many of the 11 million undocumented immigrantsliving in the United States — especially after President-elect Donald Trump threatened mass deportations of undocumented immigrants he described as criminals in a nationally televised interview Sunday night.
Eleven years ago, Morales, his wife and their two children fled guerrilla war and drug gangs in Colombia, where they lived in a city called Palmira, in a region the local press once called the country’s “violence capital.”
They came to the United States on a tourist visa, applied for asylum and settled into a quiet and successful life in Kendall. A search of public records shows Morales, who works in construction, does not have a Florida criminal record. Valeria and her brother Juan — young children when they arrived — now speak perfect English. They’re not as comfortable in Spanish.
Miami is their home. And they can’t imagine a life without their dad by their side.
“We are a family of four,” said Juan, 14. “We don’t want to lose our father.”
“[My husband] is a man with no criminal record, who has contributed much to the community,” said Yaneth Mejías, Morales’ wife. “We haven’t hurt anyone."
A federal official familiar with the case confirmed Morales does not have a criminal record in the United States.
Mejías says their ordeal is the fault of a man who told them he was an attorney and mishandled their asylum application. Like many requests from those fleeing South America, their application was denied.
“Unfortunately, we arrived in this country without knowing anyone and we fell into the hands of one of the many who do not do their job with love,” Mejías said.
The man, Fredy Barragan, is a former federal immigration officer who in 2002 was sentenced to 10 months in prison for conspiring to accept bribes from immigrants seeking admission into the United States. Barragan now runs a Hialeah-based business called F K Immigration Services. He told the Miami Herald that he clearly advertises the fact that he is not a lawyer.
While he doesn’t remember the details of the Morales case, Barragan insisted, “There’s no way I told them I was an attorney. I’d get in huge trouble for that. All the paperwork I give to clients says in big letters I’m not an attorney.”
(The website for his business prominently states, “We are NOT attorneys...”)
“If I messed up their paperwork or told them I was an attorney, they wouldn’t deport him,” Barragan said. “They would give them a chance to stay until I was dealt with.”
He said the family was looking for a scapegoat.
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