Kevin Zaldaña Ramirez started Feb. 25 like any other day, framing houses at a construction site outside of Houston. But when the 20-year-old returned from a lunch break, everything changed.
A local law enforcement officer pulled him over, claiming his license plate was dirty from recent rain, he said. Zaldaña Ramirez, who entered the U.S. at the age of 14, has a work permit and is considered a low priority for deportation. So he was surprised when the officer claimed his documents weren’t valid and told him there was an order for his removal from the country. Within minutes, he and a group of fellow construction workers were surrounded by ICE agents carrying large guns, he said.
He was in shock. “I just wasn’t expecting this,” Zaldaña Ramirez said in an interview, through an interpreter. Then, his thoughts raced to his mother, who is visually impaired and depends on him for care. “I started thinking about what would happen to my mother because she was going to be alone,” he said…