Jesus Vazquez sounds like a man grudgingly resigned to his fate.
The 25-year-old father of four, who came to the U.S. from Mexico as a baby, has been in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center near Laredo since November.
He and his Fort Worth family have been fighting his deportation since Thanksgiving. But now it’s looking like he’ll be forced in early March to return to Mexico, where he has few real ties other than a half-sister .
Vazquez’s wife, Cassidy, is a natural-born U.S. citizen. She said the past three months have been difficult on her and the couple’s four children.
Jesus and Cassidy Vazquez. Jesus, who came the U.S. as a baby, has been held in an ICE detention facility since November. It’s likely he’ll now have to return to Mexico and apply for a visa, leaving his wife and four children behind . Cassidy Vazquez
“We’ve already tried everything,” she said. She’s paid two attorneys more than $10,000 since her husband was detained, but neither have been successful in getting him released. The attorney she’s working with now, she said, won’t return her calls and hasn’t filed a writ of habeas corpus — a last-ditch effort to free Jesus — for which she paid $6,000.
A message left with the attorney’s office requesting comment was not returned.
Barring something unforeseen, when Vazquez is sent to Mexico in a few days, he’ll join the more than 3 million undocumented immigrants who have been either forcibly or voluntarily deported since President Donald Trump took office last year, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security figures.
Vazquez said in an interview by phone from the detention center that he’s worried about living in Mexico after spending nearly his entire life in the U.S.
He’s also concerned about his safety, especially in light of the violence that erupted in Mexico following the recent death of cartel leader Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho.”
The best case scenario, he said, is that he’ll be put on a plane and sent into Mexico’s interior, away from the dangerous border towns.
Cassidy Vazquez and their children don’t have passports. With the financial strain of paying bills without Jesus’ income, she doesn’t know if she can afford to move to Mexico to join Jesus. There’s also the issue of uprooting the children and disrupting their lives and schooling.
For a while, Jesus Vazquez had DACA status and a work permit that allowed him to remain in the U.S. without fear of deportation. But, he said, he let that lapse a few years ago when he was unable to find a job and money was tight. It was either pay the DACA renewal fee (which is currently $555 for online applicants) or pay for groceries and rent, he said.
DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is a program that offers deportation protection for undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children.
Jesus Vazquez was raised in the U.S. from the time he was a baby, but the 25-year-old father of four is now in an ICE detention facility awaiting deportation. Cassidy Vazquez/GoFundMe
A turning point came in 2022 when Vazquez was arrested in Benbrook on suspicion of possessing of marijuana and an unlicensed firearm. Two years later, he was arrested on the same charges in Mansfield, according to Tarrant County court records.
The records show the two Benbrook charges and the Mansfield weapon charge were dismissed, but he was convicted of a misdemeanor for the marijuana.
After his 2022 arrest, Vazquez was required to check in yearly with ICE in Dallas.
“It usually took 30 minutes,” he said. But in November, things were different. He said he watched as people went in to get their fingerprints taken and never returned. That’s when he realized he would likely be detained.
Vazquez said he cooperated because he feared having ICE agents show up at his house and arrest him in front of his children, who range in age from 5 months to 8 years old.
He was first sent to the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, then moved to Laredo. Initially, he claimed asylum, citing concerns about violence in Mexico. He said his cousin was kidnapped there, and when his family couldn’t pay the ransom, the cousin was beheaded and left in the street.
An immigration judge denied that request, he said, on the grounds that asylum claims are only valid for political and religious reasons. Bond requests were likewise denied, Cassidy Vazquez said, because he doesn’t have a U.S. visa.
On Jan. 29, Jesus Vazquez accepted the voluntary departure option offered to him, which he felt was better than being forcibly deported. Cassidy Vazquez said he made that decision during a court hearing at which his attorney was not present.
Vazquez plans to apply for a visa to return to the U.S., a process that could take anywhere from a few months to a few years.
Cassidy Vazquez said she is getting by with childcare and financial support from family and friends and through donations made via a GoFundMe page, which as of Thursday had collected $3,000. But her mother, Samantha Romer, said resources are rapidly dwindling.
In an interview with the Star-Telegram in December, Romer said she was appalled at her son-in-law’s treatment. She said she voted for tighter border security but couldn’t fathom how someone who’d grown up in the U.S. could so quickly and easily be sent back to a country he barely knew.
As for the situation in the Webb County Detention Center, Jesus Vazquez said he’s doing relatively well. He said he’d heard the reports of a measles outbreak in the Dilley ICE detention center south of San Antonio, but staff in Laredo are caring for sick detainees.
He is able to call and talk with his wife and children each day, and he’s been in contact with his younger brother Luis, who told the Star-Telegram in December that Jesus had always been like a father figure to him.
With his appeals exhausted, Vazquez was trying to maintain a positive outlook, but it was tough.
“This country was made by immigrants,” he said. “Now it’s like the American Dream doesn’t exist anymore.”
This story was originally published February 26, 2026 at 11:11 AM.
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Matt Adams is a news reporter covering Fort Worth, Tarrant County and surrounding areas. He previously wrote about aviation and travel and enjoys a good weekend road trip. Matt joined the Star-Telegram in January 2025.