ICE to deport Tri-Cities father, business owner after arrest at immigration interview
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- ICE will deport Sergio Cerdio Gomez after a federal judge denied request to stay in U.S.
- Gomez, a Kennewick food truck co-owner, received a 20-year reentry ban to the U.S.
- Family plans to visit him in Mexico as wife continues to run Hibachi Explosion
A Tri-Cities father and local business owner has been deported after a federal immigration judge denied his request to stay in the United States.
Sergio Cerdio Gomez, 42, of Pasco, will depart the Northwest ICE Processing Center on Monday evening and be transported back to Chiapas, Mexico, where he has relatives.
The judge also placed a 20-year bar on Gomez entering the country, his wife, Gabrielle “Gabby” Cerdio, told the Tri-City Herald.
Gomez is a father of three and co-owns the Kennewick food truck Hibachi Explosion with Cerdio.
His April 24 arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, at a routine interview for a pending immigration application made community headlines and angered many. It also inspired “eat-ins” at the local food truck to support the struggling family.
ICE arrested more than 66,000 undocumented individuals in the first 100 days of the Trump Administration as federal immigration police have cracked down on deporting non-citizens.
That’s stirred nationwide protests, including thousands in the Tri-Cities to come out over the weekend for the “No Kings” protest.
Cerdio described Gomez’s hour-long hearing Friday as ambiguous and claims their own lawyers failed to provide evidence showing a previous misdemeanor had been scrubbed from his record.
Public records show Gomez was arrested in 2015 by Pasco police for possession of methamphetamine. He later pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor count of use of drug paraphernalia in Franklin County Superior Court, and agreed to serve up to 90 days in jail.
“It was very sad and pathetic what our lawyer did, he didn’t know anything about our case,” Cerdio wrote on the business’ Facebook page.
“Sergio was denied to stay in the United States. I am not giving up yet. Eventually we will start to talk with new lawyers to see how we can get him back. In the meantime, I will still be running the food truck solo and taking care of our kids,” she continued.
Cerdio told the Herald she, her 18-year-old stepdaughter Sienna Cerdio Christensen, and their 5-year-old son Colter plan to fly out in a few weeks to reunite the family after Gomez is settled in Mexico.
Things continue to be stressful for the Pasco family. Cerdio previously told the Herald she and Gomez would split shifts, but now the full weight of the food truck and parenting has fallen on her shoulders. The family has felt “lost” since he was taken from them.
They’ve been in regular contact with Gomez, who’s been held the past two months in an open cell for “low-risk offenders” with little privacy at the Tacoma processing facility.
Cerdio has paid three in-person visits to Gomez since his arrest. In her Facebook post, she thanked the community for its support of their family.
The two met in 2014 and have been married since 2022. That same year they began working on Gomez’s immigration status.
In 2023, they filed an I-130 petition with the government, 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. Filing the application, they believed, would shield him from possible deportation.
There was little progress in their case until this March, when they were notified a decision would occur within two months. That was followed by a notice of an appointment for an interview with immigration officials in Yakima, set for April 24.
This story was originally published June 16, 2025 at 5:21 PM.
