In the last few months, Yesenia Santiago’s biggest fear was to wake up and learn that her husband, Lucas, had been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Her fear came true on Sept. 21, when she woke up to a text message from Lucas asking her to recover his van.
When she went to get it, she saw coffee in the cupholders and a pack of cookies spilled on the floor.
“It looked like workers going to work, eating their morning breakfast, their morning coffee,” she recalled. “The tacos were still freaking warm.”
Santiago’s husband told her that he, his brother, and a friend had been detained in South Austin by ICE agents while heading to a job for his carpentry business. It was the day after an ICE agent shot 28-year-old Wilber Garces Perez, putting a spotlight on the impact of immigration enforcement across Austin.
Now, Santiago is fighting for her husband’s release while also caring for their 14-month old son and preparing to give birth in less than two months.
“I am not a single mom. I have the best dad I could ever ask for my children, but he got taken from me.” she said.
The Santiagos are among countless Austin families who’ve been impacted by ICE activity in recent months. Following the shooting of Garces Perez last week, the agency vowed on social media that it “will not be slowing down operations in Austin.”
“This is a lot of people’s reality,” Santiago said. ”You know it’s happening, but it’s not a reality until it’s happening to you or your family.”
A loving family
Yesenia Santiago was born and raised in Austin. Her husband was born in San Luis Potosí, Mexico and immigrated to the U.S. as a teenager. They met at Cristo Rey Catholic Church in East Austin in 2016.
Courtesy of Yesenia Santiago
“After seeing him become a father, I didn’t know you could love someone even more,” Yesenia Santiago said of her husband, Lucas Santiago.
The pair dated for a few years. Pluckers became their favorite spot to get chicken wings. On weekends, they went to “bailes” (dances) and “La Pulga” (the flea market). They wore matching costumes on Halloween and often wore matching outfits at parties. Every winter, they went to the Trail of Lights at Zilker Park.
They got married in 2021, bought a house and moved in together. They submitted paperwork in order to begin securing legal status for Lucas; years later, it has yet to be approved.
Back then, they dreamed of walking around the flea market with a stroller. But after they lost their first baby at 19 weeks of pregnancy, Yesenia went into a deep depression.
“That’s the hardest situation I’ve ever been through and he was the biggest support I’ve had,” she said of Lucas. Now that she’s without him, she said, “I’m inconsolable.”
In 2025, their son Yadiel was born, giving a new breath of life to the family. Yesenia became a full-time mom, and Lucas a loving father.
Living in fear
By then, President Donald Trump had been inaugurated for a second time, promising to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. Yesenia’s social media began to fill up with videos of people being taken away by ICE agents in Austin.
The family took precautions. Yesenia began driving the family everywhere they went. They stopped going to the flea market and to “bailes” because “those are targeted areas,” she said.
Lucas checked his work van every morning to make sure all the lights were working. He got a library card in order to have a form of photo identification. He and Yesenia had talked about what he would do if he was ever detained: Don’t run away, ask if you’re under arrest, don’t say anything else.
It’s not clear why ICE agents stopped Lucas’ van. He told Yesenia they did not inform him of a traffic violation or any other criminal offense when they detained him. He is now in an immigration detention center in Taylor, Texas. The couple knows they have a long road ahead and are weighing their current legal options.
An ICE spokesperson told KUT News Santiago would remain in custody while his immigration case is pending. Lawyers told Yesenia it is likely that it will be months before he’s out.
“Hold on to God’s hands,” Lucas told Yesenia in Spanish during a recent phone call he placed from the detention center “And be strong, now more than ever, because you’re pregnant.”
Yesenia is set to give birth to her and Lucas’ second baby in a few weeks. She also has to come up with at least $12,000 to pay their lawyer, and she needs to learn how to pay all their other bills. She said Lucas took care of those tasks; she doesn’t even know where to start. She’ll have to find a job, too.
“I don’t know if I can find child care, a job and then give birth, and then go back to work,” she said.
She hopes that one day she and Lucas will be able to continue their lives together. But for now, the future of the family is up to the immigration system.
“Loving someone who’s undocumented is just so hard, but I didn’t ask for it,” she said.