{"id":119687,"date":"2026-01-15T21:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T21:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/119687\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T21:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T21:12:09","slug":"honduran-mother-deported-after-tampa-arrest-caught-on-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/119687\/","title":{"rendered":"Honduran mother deported after Tampa arrest caught on video"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carmen Funez thought it was just another step in her immigration process. But this time, something felt off.<\/p>\n

While she was waiting in line for a fingerprint appointment at an immigration office in Tampa, she was called forward and taken first. She was led into a private room. She was asked questions about her personal life in front of a video camera.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is something wrong?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

No one answered.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Funez, 42, was arrested after the appointment at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Application Support Center in a shopping mall on Gunn Highway. A week later, she was deported to Honduras, a country she left nearly 12 years ago after crossing the border with her son \u00c1ngel, who is now 14.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey grabbed me like people do when they kidnap someone,\u201d Funez told the Tampa Bay Times via WhatsApp from San Pedro Sula, where she is living with a sister. \u201cI panicked. There are parts I forgot out of fear. I can\u2019t remember.\u201d<\/p>\n

The arrest, which lasted only a few seconds and happened on Jan. 2, might have gone unnoticed if not for a bystanderwho recorded it on a phone. In the video, Funez can be heard screaming for help, confused and disoriented, as three officers grab her arms and try to restrain her.<\/p>\n

For about 20 seconds, no one is heard identifying themselves as law enforcement. Only then does one of the men shout, \u201cStop resisting! Police!\u201d<\/p>\n

Funez\u2019s voice changes. \u201cOK, OK,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Funez\u2019s arrest reflects an increasingly common approach to immigration enforcement that has been denounced by nonprofits, activists and immigration attorneys. They say encounters are becoming more aggressive<\/a> and violent<\/a> than ever. Last week, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot<\/a> and killed a Minneapolis driver.<\/p>\n

Funez has a pending petition that would grant her a green card and permanent legal status, filed through her U.S.-born husband, Dan Pfeffer, 36. She also has an asylum petition and a motion to reopen a removal order after a missed hearing in 2015.<\/p>\n

The couple married six years ago after meeting in Wisconsin and bought a home in Gibsonton last August.<\/p>\n

Olivia Scott, Funez\u2019s immigration attorney, said she was not given an opportunity to speak with Funez or take any action to defend her after she was detained. According to Scott, agents said they could take Funez into custody because her cases were pending.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow the only guarantee is that if you get detained, you will more likely be deported,\u201d Scott said. \u201cI never would have sent my client into a dangerous situation like what she experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott said the officers in the video were with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A spokesperson for the agency didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment on Funez\u2019s deportation.<\/p>\n

The video<\/a> was first aired by Univision Tampa Bay, but at the time it was unclear who the woman was. Days later, Funez\u2019s husband contacted a Times reporter to identify her and speak out about what happened.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In Gibsonton, Pfeffer said he does not know what to do. For now, his only plan is to make a quick trip to Honduras this weekend to see his wife and try to comfort her.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to have a plan B when you never imagine something like this happening,\u201d Pfeffer said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t mind moving to Honduras, but I don\u2019t know how I would work, how we would support everyone there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pfeffer said his wife was trying to follow the process.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThey already had everything in the system,\u201d he said. \u201cThis appointment felt like an excuse to arrest and deport her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the pain and family separation, Funez said she is grateful she was alone when immigration agents arrested her. It would have been worse if her son had been there, she said, to see her detained \u201clike a criminal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funez said she was transferred to Louisiana the same day as her arrest and held in a detention center there until her deportation with a large group of Honduran immigrants, \u201cpossibly more than 100 people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Funez said she believes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is also looking for her son, because they asked where he was.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did not care that he is a minor and that he has done nothing wrong,\u201d Funez said.<\/p>\n

Funez\u2019s son is not protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program<\/a>, an executive action signed by former President Barack Obama in 2012. To qualify for this program, a person must have lived in the U.S. since 2007 and been in the country when the program began in 2012. Because Funez\u2019s son entered with his mother in 2014, he does not meet those requirements.<\/p>\n

Funez\u2019s son wants to stay in the United States because \u201cit\u2019s the only country he knows,\u201d she said. He tells her every day on the phone that he will wait for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want a chance to go back to my family,\u201d Funez said. \u201cI never asked the government for help or benefits. I was never a burden.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carmen Funez thought it was just another step in her immigration process. But this time, something felt off.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[60057,60062,60061,14690,1841,11611,60060,60058,135,137,136,60059],"class_list":{"0":"post-119687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-carmen-funez","9":"tag-dan-pfeffer","10":"tag-fingerprint-appointment","11":"tag-honduras","12":"tag-immigration","13":"tag-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","14":"tag-immigration-attorney","15":"tag-olivia-scott","16":"tag-tampa","17":"tag-tampa-headlines","18":"tag-tampa-news","19":"tag-video-camera"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}