Pizza delivery man Pablo Villavicencio was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Friday after he made a delivery to a military base in Brooklyn, New York, The Hill reports. The soldier who picked up the pizza requested Villavicencio’s immigration documents and called ICE when Villavicencio admitted that he didn’t have those documents with him.
Villavicencio’s wife, Sandra Chica, who is an American citizen, told newspaper El Diario that her husband has been taken to an immigration jail and now faces potential deportation.
“As usual, he went to the military base to deliver a pizza order. But this time, the guard—whom he identified as African American—asked him for a valid identification document, and since he didn’t have one, the soldier called immigration to arrest him,” Chica said.
The couple met five years ago, got married, and have two daughters. They had begun the process for Villavicencio to get residency status earlier this year.
“There aren’t any words that can define the drama that my daughters and I are living,” Chica said. “From one moment to the next, life changed for us and all I ask for now is for them to not deport my husband, to give him an opportunity.”
This is just the latest heartbreaking case of hardworking immigrants being detained by ICE as anti-immigrant sentiment—fueled at least in part by Donald Trump’s racist rhetoric—has emboldened ICE and resulted in more raids and more arrests. In just the past few weeks, a two-time army veteran was deported by ICE, a border patrol agent tried to abandon a man in Mexico simply because he “looked” Mexican, and another border control agent killed a 20-year-old unarmed woman in Texas.
