Family struggles with fallout after Pasco dad held for months, deported by ICE
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Longtime WA agricultural mechanic deported from U.S. to Mexico.
- Despite community support, an immigration judge ruled deportation caused no hardship.
- Family now relies on daughters' incomes after losing main financial provider.
When Alejandra Guzman-Mercado walked across the stage at her college graduation, there was someone missing from the audience.
Her father was deported to Mexico just weeks before the ceremony in June at Eastern Washington University. He was arrested by a federal immigration agent in February a few blocks away from his Pasco home while on his way to work.
A federal work permit he had previously applied for was finally approved while he was being held in the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma.
Guzman-Mercado’s father is a self-taught mechanic who worked for years on agricultural machinery in orchards and farms in southeastern Washington.
After more than 20 years in the U.S., he is starting again in central Mexico, reconnecting with relatives and looking for work.
Guzman-Mercado, 23, told the Tri-City Herald that her family is picking up the pieces in his absence.
Most of the family’s expenses now fall to her to pay.
Immigration hearings
Guzman-Mercado’s father was born in Mexico and had been working with an immigration attorney at Quiroga Law Office in Kennewick for two years to establish legal status and gain a work permit.
He may have been targeted for arrest because of a DUI charge in 2020 and minor traffic violations that had been resolved.
He was detained at the Tacoma detention center Feb. 23 to June 17.
Since February, Guzman-Mercado’s father had three immigration hearings and was denied immigration bond twice.
Guzman-Mercado has a 16-year-old brother and 20-year-old sister. They all attended the third hearing.
The family submitted dozens of letters of community support to the court written by people who attend their church, the children’s teachers from Pasco School District, EWU professors and each of the children.
At the man’s final hearing in early May, Guzman-Mercado’s younger sister volunteered as a witness to plea for her father to stay in the U.S. He also gave a statement.
But ultimately the immigration judge ruled that the family would not experience unusual hardship if he was removed.
Guzman-Mercado felt that was an unfair assessment of the situation. She said that in Latino households, it’s common for children to live with their parents and get support until they are married. Her father had helped her sister enroll in school as an esthetician.
“I really thought the judge was going to let him stay,” she said.
“We had proof that my dad worked in the U.S., that he does his taxes and that there was nothing about him that would label him as a criminal.”
“And yet our story wasn’t enough.”
Guzman-Mercado remembers her sister collapsing in her arms after the judge announced the decision. Her brother didn’t speak for the rest of the day.
Then she had to share the news over the phone with her mother.
“That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. It was no longer about waiting for another hearing.”
Deportation process
It took about a month after receiving the removal order before the man’s deportation flight departed on June 17.
Guzman-Mercado said that her father became resigned to leaving the U.S. during that time. His mental health worsened. He began having panic attacks and suicidal thoughts.
After researching online, she learned her father would be able to take a small carry-on backpack on the flight from Washington to a detention center in Arizona.
She packed clothing, underwear, food and Mexican money and delivered it to detention center in Tacoma.
She said that of the 120 men, women and children on the flight with her father, he was the only one with a bag with personal items.
After staying overnight in Arizona, he traveled by bus to central Mexico. He got a meal and night’s stay through the Mexican government program Mexico Te Abraza, translated to Mexico Embraces You. The program helps Mexicans deported from the U.S. to reintegrate and receive services.
Family moves forward
Without her father’s income, Guzman-Mercado said her family is now depending on her and her sister to work and support them financially.
Guzman-Mercado graduated with her bachelor’s in music with plans to be a high school band teacher. This summer, she was hired as an assistant in EWU’s music department.
She’s paying the mortgage on her family’s Pasco home and rent for her apartment in Cheney. Her younger sister is working as an esthetician and covering utility bills.
Their mother recently started a job packing fruit for a large local grower.
Guzman-Mercado said that she can now talk to her father whenever she wants — a contrast to the limited phone calls they had during his detention.
He is living with his older sister near Zacatecas, Mexico. He is helping care for his wife’s parents nearby.
Immigration attorney Hector Quiroga, a partner at Quiroga Law Office, confirmed that his staff was providing him legal services.
Quiroga declined to discuss specifics of the case, but said that there needs to be a reason for ICE agents to target someone and they must have probable cause to arrest them.
He said resolved cases for misdemeanor charges such as DUIs are likely putting some undocumented immigrants on ICE’s radar.
“None of (these types of charges) used to be a problem because they were so old and (the individual) had shown good character,” Quiroga said.
“Now we’re seeing that (federal agents) are picking these things that they didn’t used to.”
In June, a Tri-Cities father and owner of the Hibachi Explosion food truck in Kennewick was deported and transported back to Chiapas, Mexico, where he has relatives.
He is one of several immigrants in Washington who’ve been detained by ICE agents during routine interviews and immigration court hearings.
This story was originally published July 13, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
