TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – An Atlanta man is back home five months after he was detained in a large-scale raid at a construction site along Gaines Street and sent to Texas for processing.
Jose Padron was detained by ICE in Tallahassee on May 29 at a construction site and sent to El Paso, Texas.
His daughter, Britney, was desperate to contact him and get him home.
Months after his detainment, the family says they won a federal appeal after the bond was initially denied.
He’s out on bond now, and after a 24-hour Greyhound bus ride home, Padron said it was an emotional reunion with his loved ones.
“When I saw them at the station, there were tears of happiness and joy, which were very different from the tears I cried when I was first detained,” Jose said in Spanish.
“They were very very different. I was very happy to be home,” he said.
Britney said her father has lived in the Atlanta area for decades and has no criminal record. She said she is thankful to have her father back home and knows it is just the beginning of the legal fight to keep him in the country.
“It felt so long since seeing him in person that I just started tearing up. And then my dad started tearing up, and me and my brother ran up to him and hugged him. We just hugged and cried,” she said.
Jose said he knows a couple of other men arrested during the Tallahassee immigration raid who have also made it back to their homes, but he also knows of others who remain locked up.
The raid was part of a U.S. Department of Homeland Security criminal investigation, according to an email from Hedrick Brothers Construction.
When asked about recent raids, FHP has deferred all questions to Homeland Security. Homeland Security has not responded to multiple messages this year from WCTV asking for identifying information and case updates on recent detainments and arrests.
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