A pastor who led a small Hispanic church in Florida was deported to Guatemala after more than two decades of living in the United States, leaving his wife and five children feeling that the world as they knew it had come to an end.
Maurilio Ambrocio, a 42-year-old pastor who led the 50-member Iglesia de Santidad Vida Nueva in Wimauma, told the Tampa Bay Times he was among 100 Guatemalan immigrants deported from New Orleans through a charter flight. He was allowed to contact his family once he arrived and was provided with information to help with reintegration into Guatemalan society.
Ambrocio was arrested in mid-April during a check-in at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Tampa. He lived in Florida for more than 20 years after entering the U.S. illegally. He left his home in Guatemala when he was 15 years old.
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He was allowed to remain in the country through a stay of removal that required him to meet with federal agents annually and refrain from committing any crimes. He and his wife have five children, aged 12 to 19, all of whom are U.S. citizens.
At the time of his arrest, an ICE spokesperson told media that the pastor was in the U.S. illegally and offered no further clarification.
“My mother, my brothers, and I are very saddened by all this, but also relieved that my father is no longer in prison and is a free man,” Ambrocio’s 19-year-old daughter, Ashley, told the newspaper. “We were very worried about his health and the fact that he was locked up for so long.”
Ambrocio claims the conditions in detention were difficult and “treatment was very bad,” saying he lost about 24 pounds.
“I don’t think we deserved that because we are not bad people or criminals,” the pastor said. “But that time is over. Now we have to recover and think about what to do next.”
Ambrocio’s wife, Marleny, told NPR last month that for her and the children, it feels like the “world ended.”
“How are we going to eat?” she asked. “How are we going to pay the bills?”
While the Trump administration often touts its immigration enforcement on migrants with criminal records, there have been several cases of immigrants who don’t have violent criminal histories being detained and deported, much to the dismay of their communities.
Trying to fulfill one of President Donald Trump’s campaign promises, the White House has increased pressure on federal agents to arrest up to 3,000 people per day, which would equate to more than 1 million per year.
Another Guatemalan deported this year is Cesar Reyes, a Hispanic conservative former advisor of Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt. Reyes was brought to the U.S. at the age of 16 with his parents. Over the past decade-plus, he married and has a 3-year-old son in Oklahoma City. He had been trying to fight a removal order for the past decade.
“I just feel like I was discouraged, I feel like I wasn’t given due process,” Reyes told KFOR. “I feel a good citizen like me should have the opportunity to come back in a legal way to be with my 3-year-old and my wife, who need me the most right now.”
Late last month, Pastor Ara Torosian of Cornerstone Church in West Los Angeles spoke out after five members of his Iranian Christian congregation were detained by federal agents over the previous week, including one couple seeking asylum who fled Iran because of their faith in Christ.
The couple, he said, attended his church for over a year and have no family in L.A. They had work permits and no criminal records.
“In one moment, I felt that I’m in the street of Tehran, under fear, under dictatorship,” he told NBC Los Angeles. “They came here for freedom, not like this.”
Iran ranks as the ninth-worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, where converts from Islam face dire consequences and are given long prison sentences.
Earlier this year, around two dozen Afghan Christian refugees facing deportation who attend a North Carolina church received notifications informing them they had to leave the U.S. Much like Iran, Christians in Afghanistan face heavy persecution.
“We are continuing to try to reach out to senators and congressmen and other people who may know, have contacts … in the administration,” Julie Tisdale, a seminary student who attends the Church of the Apostles in Raleigh, told The Christian Post in early June. “We have lots of people who have told us that they understand, they’re sympathetic, but we have yet to find anybody who’s willing to really be the champion for this and raise the issue very publicly.”
