I met Jasmine Garcia Lopez for the first time Nov. 24, 2025 — just five days after her dad, Misael, had been arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE.
After messaging back and forth on Instagram, she agreed to meet with me and former Lookout Eugene-Springfield photojournalist Isaac Wasserman, at the now-closed El Charro Mexican Restaurant off Royal Avenue in Eugene. She wanted to tell the story of her dad and the morning he was taken away.
Interviewing people in the middle of a crisis is one of the hardest and most delicate parts of being a journalist. This particular crisis, a father swept up in a local surge of immigration enforcement, was unlike anything I had covered. I worried about making an already unbearable week even harder…