Supporters stage ‘eat in’ at food truck after ICE detains Tri-Cities business owner
Rick Toothaker stepped up to the Hibachi Explosion food truck Tuesday evening to order some chicken fried rice.
As he paid for his food, the 63-year-old Kennewick resident slipped an extra $5 into the tip jar.
He’s been coming to the Clearwater Avenue food truck for a while, but recent events left him troubled and he said the food truck owners could use a little extra help.
Sergio Cerdio Gomez was arrested April 24 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement during what they called a routine interview for his pending immigration application filed three years ago.
His detainment has rocked some in the Tri-Cities as the Trump administration continues to ratchet up immigration enforcement. In the first 100 days, ICE has reportedly arrested more than 66,000 undocumented individuals.
Gomez, 42, of Pasco, now is being held at the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center with a court date pending.
“I’m appalled that something like that could happen in America, let alone in Kennewick,” said Toothaker, a maintenance worker concerned about due process rights. “It’s something I can’t agree with, at all. It’s just a bad situation.”
Community members and groups have been organizing “eat ins” at the food truck at 7425 W. Clearwater Ave.
On Tuesday, Indivisible Tri-Cities, an anti-Trump coalition, organized dozens of supporters to come out to rally along the street and to bring the family some business. Several proudly held signs and sported “Free Sergio” buttons.
“I’m just so surprised, honestly,” said Gomez’s wife, Gabrielle “Gabby” Cerdio. “A lot of people are supporting him and I just wish he could see what this is bringing for us.”
“I think he would be thrilled that he has this much support,” she continued. “He’s so happy. He’s, like, in awe of how much support we’re getting with the community. It’s amazing.”
She’s been accepting donations, both cash and through payment platform Venmo, to help pay for his legal expenses and for gas to visit him. She says they’ve raised at least $2,500 so far.
Cerdio says Gomez has access to an electronic tablet and has been video chatting with them multiple times a day. He is living in an open cell for “low-risk offenders” with little privacy.
Cerdio and Gomez’s 17-year-old daughter drove to Tacoma last week to visit him for the first time.
She tells the Tri-City Herald he’s in good spirits, but his mental health is “slowly declining.” The slow, monotonous legal process is breaking him.
“It sucks. It’s really sh***y to be alone,” the 29-year-old mother said, her voice breaking. “I have a lot of community support, but his kids are missing their dad. It just sucks.”
Gomez and Cerdio have been together for 10 years and married for three. They’re raising two children, ages 5 and 10 months. Gomez’s oldest is about to graduate from River’s Edge High School, and has been working nonstop to help support the family.
Cerdio says she and her husband would usually work split shifts, but with him gone the full weight of the food truck and parenting is on her. She’s working six days a week, usually getting home after her kids are fast asleep and had to hire expensive child care.
She explains that Gomez’s name isn’t showing up in ICE’s detainee locator because of a 2015 asylum case that was closed by a federal judge. The family has to ask a federal judge to reopen it.
She has said he entered the U.S. illegally in 1998 at the age of 14 when an adult relative brought him from his native Mexico.
When they got married, he again began working on his immigration status. Then in 2023, they filed an I-130 petition, which allows legal U.S. residents and citizens to petition for their loved ones to remain in the country while pursuing green cards and eventually, citizenship.
Loren Malone, a co-founder of Indivisible Tri-Cities, urged Tri-City residents to give whatever amount they can to help the family. The business owner is being wrongfully detained, she argues.
“’Go through the process.’ That’s what we have asked people who have come to this country. And then we just turn around and say, ‘No, that’s not good enough.’ It’s not fair and not right,” she said.
This story was originally published May 7, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
