Florida father in ICE custody after daughter pulled over for a traffic stop

A Central Florida father from Mexico has been in ICE custody for more than three months since his daughter got pulled over for speeding in Volusia County.”I’m here in a wheelchair without my father,” his daughter Yanet Gutierrez said.The 22-year-old daughter is fighting cancer while her father sits in an ICE detention facility in Mississippi. “I’m going through leukemia, cancer, and I just got diagnosed with Crohn’s disease,” Gutierrez told WESH 2. “I need two hips replaced, and my father is my driver, you know, the one I lean on, the one for everything.”On Sept. 18, she was the one driving with her dad from the hospital in Orlando to their home in Lake County.”We were almost home, 15-20 minutes from the home, and I get pulled over,” Gutierrez said.Body camera video obtained by WESH 2 shows a Volusia Sheriff’s Office sergeant pulling her over for going 50 mph in a 35-mph zone.“How’d your appointment go?” the sergeant asks her in the video. “It went great,” Gutierrez replied. “Getting the surgery soon.”She said she was shocked when the sergeant asked her father in the passenger’s seat, “Sir, do you have your ID also? Oh, there you go, perfect.”Guiterrez is heard in the video asking the sergeant, “why do you need his ID, though?”Back in his car after checking both of their IDs, the sergeant told his supervisor, “I’ve got one illegal that they’re on the way to me right now.”Minutes later, Border Patrol agents arrived to take Miguel Gutierrez Torres into custody.”You were driving a vehicle that got stopped for a traffic violation,” another deputy is heard telling Gutierrez in the body camera video. “We check all the occupants of the vehicle. He’s not a United States citizen, so he has to have a court date. That’s the recent law changes, and that’s how we’re operating. It’s nothing personal against you. It’s nothing personal against him. We don’t know him.”Gutierrez said after a day and a half in the Orange County jail, her 49-year-old father was transported to Alligator Alcatraz. He was held there for more than two weeks.“(The detainees) talk to each other, amongst each other,” Gutierrez said of her dad’s time in the detention facility in the Florida Everglades. “They all got swept up from some type of job, picked up at a traffic stop, or, you know, at their court hearings, you know, trying to become legal here in this country.”Gutierrez said her father has been in the United States for 30 years. She said he had a valid work permit and no criminal record. He was working as fern cutter to support his seven children. Six of them were born in Florida.”We’re proud of him and, you know that we love him so much,” Gutierrez said, holding back tears. “He’s always going to be, you know, he’s always going to be our guy.”She said her father in ICE custody is scared, tired and hopeless. “My father, he does use a sleeping machine,” Gutierrez said, He’s been three months three months without this CPAP machine. So, he’s scared he’s not going to wake up one day.”This holiday season she said her father has accepted the possibility of being deported back to Mexico.“We don’t even want presents,” Gutierrez said. “We don’t want nothing. All we want is our father back.”Gutierrez said her father finally has a court date before an immigration judge on Jan. 7.She did not receive a speeding ticket from the traffic stop. Instead, the deputy issued her a warning.

A Central Florida father from Mexico has been in ICE custody for more than three months since his daughter got pulled over for speeding in Volusia County.

“I’m here in a wheelchair without my father,” his daughter Yanet Gutierrez said.

The 22-year-old daughter is fighting cancer while her father sits in an ICE detention facility in Mississippi.

“I’m going through leukemia, cancer, and I just got diagnosed with Crohn’s disease,” Gutierrez told WESH 2. “I need two hips replaced, and my father is my driver, you know, the one I lean on, the one for everything.”

On Sept. 18, she was the one driving with her dad from the hospital in Orlando to their home in Lake County.

“We were almost home, 15-20 minutes from the home, and I get pulled over,” Gutierrez said.

Body camera video obtained by WESH 2 shows a Volusia Sheriff’s Office sergeant pulling her over for going 50 mph in a 35-mph zone.

“How’d your appointment go?” the sergeant asks her in the video.

“It went great,” Gutierrez replied. “Getting the surgery soon.”

She said she was shocked when the sergeant asked her father in the passenger’s seat, “Sir, do you have your ID also? Oh, there you go, perfect.”

Guiterrez is heard in the video asking the sergeant, “why do you need his ID, though?”

Back in his car after checking both of their IDs, the sergeant told his supervisor, “I’ve got one illegal that they’re on the way to me right now.”

Minutes later, Border Patrol agents arrived to take Miguel Gutierrez Torres into custody.

“You were driving a vehicle that got stopped for a traffic violation,” another deputy is heard telling Gutierrez in the body camera video. “We check all the occupants of the vehicle. He’s not a United States citizen, so he has to have a court date. That’s the recent law changes, and that’s how we’re operating. It’s nothing personal against you. It’s nothing personal against him. We don’t know him.”

Gutierrez said after a day and a half in the Orange County jail, her 49-year-old father was transported to Alligator Alcatraz. He was held there for more than two weeks.

“(The detainees) talk to each other, amongst each other,” Gutierrez said of her dad’s time in the detention facility in the Florida Everglades. “They all got swept up from some type of job, picked up at a traffic stop, or, you know, at their court hearings, you know, trying to become legal here in this country.”

Gutierrez said her father has been in the United States for 30 years. She said he had a valid work permit and no criminal record. He was working as fern cutter to support his seven children. Six of them were born in Florida.

“We’re proud of him and, you know that we love him so much,” Gutierrez said, holding back tears. “He’s always going to be, you know, he’s always going to be our guy.”

She said her father in ICE custody is scared, tired and hopeless.

“My father, he does use a sleeping machine,” Gutierrez said, He’s been three months three months without this CPAP machine. So, he’s scared he’s not going to wake up one day.”

This holiday season she said her father has accepted the possibility of being deported back to Mexico.

“We don’t even want presents,” Gutierrez said. “We don’t want nothing. All we want is our father back.”

Gutierrez said her father finally has a court date before an immigration judge on Jan. 7.

She did not receive a speeding ticket from the traffic stop. Instead, the deputy issued her a warning.