A young man in his 20s sits in a black double cab truck with his grandparents on a Friday afternoon waiting for his dad to come out of his check-in at the Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office.
His dad, who is a Colombian national, had arrived at his appointment at noon; a few hours later, he hasn't come back out. The family eventually drives off, unsure of what's happened to him.
Another man, a Cuban national, didn't come out of his check-in at the Dallas ICE Field office, despite having his papers in order. His friend Dennis, who only shared his first name with KERA, was there for support; they work together at an airport. Dennis said his friend has been in the country about two and a half years.
"He's a hard worker, honest, humble," Dennis told KERA in Spanish. "He has all his paperwork in, asylum, residency, everything in process. He even brought his documents with him, and the person that saw him didn't care."
Dennis said immigration officials are "crossing the line" of what's required.
"We hope to hear better news soon," he said. "It's sad."
They're just two examples of the detainments happening at the field office on what's become a daily basis, immigration experts say.
Immigration attorney Isabela Garcia, who is a consulting attorney for the Mexican Consulate office in Dallas, told KERA migrants are following the legal processes and checking in as required. In the past, they still had an opportunity to go through the process before possibly being deported, she said.
"Now the president is saying if you don't have your status like now with you, showing us why you can be here, you're going to get deported," she said.
Because of the recent uptick in detainments, community organizers representing various immigrant advocacy groups have been showing up every weekday to provide migrants with support.
Maria, a volunteer who only shared her first name, said she and others are there to let people know about their rights. They're also encouraging people to not park in the ICE field office parking lot, to avoid getting their vehicles towed if they are detained.
"Unfortunately, for the past three weeks, we have been getting notifications that folks aren't coming back out," she said. "They're aggressively deporting people and they're being ruthless. They're asking them to call their family members and asking their family members to come in so they end up, you know, really taking whole families."
Maria and other community organizers said there is no such thing as a routine check-in anymore. She has seen people going in and not coming out--and then she has to console family members and friends that have accompanied them to their check-in.
One woman, who didn't want to share her name, approached the group of volunteers in tears and told them her husband had been detained.
"This is his third check-in, and this is the first time this has happened," she told KERA. She said he had a political asylum case and a pending court date and didn't expect to be detained. She said she would be contacting their attorney.
In the three hours that KERA was outside the Dallas Field Office, at least five detainments took place, as distraught family members stopped by the volunteer table to ask for help – to ask how they would be able to locate their friend or family member.
Asked about the increase in detainments, a spokesperson for ICE said they did not have anything to report about a policy change.
Maria, who has accompanied people inside the ICE field office for their check-ins, said she can feel the tension as they wait in line for their appointment.
"That's always really heartbreaking, because they don't know what's going to happen," she said. "They don't know if that's the last time they're going to be free on the outside."
Priscilla Rice is KERA's communities reporter. Got a tip? Email her at price@kera.org.
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