Eleven-year-old J.R.C. distinctly remembers federal immigration agents putting on gloves before they arrested his father outside their South-Central El Paso home April 28.
“Se pusieron los guantes y nos agarraron asi con muchas fuerzas,” said the slender, curly-haired boy who is identified by his initials in court records. El Paso Matters is not identifying him by his full name to protect him from retribution for telling his story. “They put their gloves on and they got us like this by force.”
It was about 10 days after his birthday, and according to the boy, a neighbor called Immigration and Customs Enforcement on them because they were outside playing and woke her baby.
“Nos hecho la migración y por eso estoy aquí,” J.R.C. recounted after a July 7 immigration hearing. He was granted voluntary departure to return to Venezuela to be reunited with his mother. “They called immigration on us and that’s why I’m here.”
Jesus Eduardo Reyes Hermes, the boy’s father, was approached by ICE as he worked on his car in front of their home in April. He identified J.R.C. as his son and both were apprehended and taken to the El Paso ICE Processing Center near the airport. The boy was separated from his father and was later placed in a shelter for unaccompanied minors El Paso.
Reyes Hermes was transferred to Camp East Montana – the controversial ICE detention facility on Fort Bliss in East El Paso. After a bout of legal wrangling in federal court, Reyes Hermes was released on bond in June. However, J.R.C. remains in a shelter for minors until a deportation flight to Venezuela can be arranged for him.
Their story is not uncommon, especially as the Trump administration casts a wide net to increase immigration arrests nationwide – with federal immigration agents pursuing people on the street and at traffic stops, at their homes and job sites, and at immigration check-in appointments and court hearings, immigration attorneys with Estrella del Paso and other advocacy and legal aid organizations have said.
In 2025 – Trump’s first year of his second term – ICE arrested about 321,700 people – nearly triple the prior year under President Joe Biden, according to the Deportation Data Project, a repository of immigration enforcement statistics run by the University of California, Berkeley and UCLA.
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In El Paso last year, ICE arrested more than 9,600 people – more than five times the previous year, the data shows. From January to March this year, the latest figures available through the Deportation Data Project, ICE arrested more than 68,000 people nationwide – about 3,000 of those in El Paso.
And though exact numbers haven’t been reported by federal immigration agencies, the New York Times reported a recent surge in apprehensions. About 10,000 people were arrested by ICE over five days in late June, the news organization reported.
The departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, which oversee ICE and the ORR, respectively, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
ICE has detained more than 6,200 children with their families from January 2025 to April this year, according to the Deportation Data Project, and was holding an average 226 children each day compared to 24 children during the Biden administration’s final year.
For Reyes Hermes and J.R.C., their detention led to separation after escaping poverty, violence and political upheaval in Venezuela and having been part of the El Paso community for nearly four years.
Reyes Hermes, who initially agreed to tell his story, did not respond to calls and texts from El Paso Matters seeking an interview or comment. His attorneys also declined comment.
With his father’s permission, however, El Paso Matters spoke briefly to J.R.C. after his July immigration hearing before he was whisked away by his shelter caretakers.
J.R.C., who was attending school in El Paso, said he misses his friends and cites a teacher who helped him learn to read as his favorite. He learned some English, he said, but is still most comfortable speaking Spanish. He said his favorite subject is math and that he looks forward to continuing his studies.
“Your friends must miss you and are wondering where you are,” Estrella del Paso attorney Natasha Rosario told him. He shrugged.
He recounted how he’s the oldest of five siblings – smiling slightly when Rosario told he gave off first-born vibes of leadership and responsibility. As he spoke, Rosario noted how eloquent he was for an 11-year-old.
“Gracias,” he said shyly.
From unlawful entry to protected status
Reyes Hermes entered the United States unlawfully with his son in July 2023 – about two months after the region experienced an onslaught of migrants who sought to arrive here before Title 42 ended. But due to “lack of bed space,” he was released on his own recognizance, court records show.
They were placed in immigration proceedings. The father was initially processed under expedited removal – a fast-tracked deportation that doesn’t allow for an immigration court process. But due to a finding that he had a credible fear of persecution if returned to Venezuela, court records show, he was placed into full removal proceedings – meaning he would have the opportunity to present his asylum case before an immigration judge.
Father and son applied for temporary protected status for Venezuelans, a humanitarian relief program that granted deportation protections and work permits for qualifying migrants. They were granted TPS in 2024.
However, the Trump administration ended the TPS protections in late 2025, with exemptions for those who received approval before Feb. 5, 2025, whose status and work permits would be valid through Oct. 2, 2026. Reyes Hermes was in the process of applying for the exemption as required, according to court documents.
In July 2024, Reyes Hermes was arrested by El Paso police on misdemeanor assault/family violence charges. The District Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute in the case. He also had traffic warrants from a July 2025 stop where he was cited for not having a driver’s license and for child safety belt violation.
A winding court journey
After being arrested by federal immigration officials in April, Reyes Hermes and J.R.C., through the Texas Immigration Law Council, filed federal habeas corpus petitions, arguing their detention was unlawful because of their temporary protected statuses, and asking that they be released or granted bond hearings.
On May 29, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone of El Paso ordered the government to explain why relief should not be granted, court records show. On June 2, Cardone ordered that Reyes Hermes not be deported or transferred out of El Paso while the case was pending.
Eight days later, on June 10, Cardone ordered the government to give Reyes Hermes a bond hearing before an immigration judge or release him under reasonable conditions of supervision by June 17. A day before that deadline, an immigration judge ordered Reyes Hermes released on a $5,000 bond.
At the same time, court records show, Cardone similarly ordered the government to explain why J.R.C. should remain in a shelter under the Office of Refugee Resettlement, an agency under the Department of Health and Human Services charged with the care and custody of unaccompanied migrant children.
“To require JRC to remain detained while subjecting him to an inapplicable and increasingly futile bureaucratic process would reward the government error that created his purported (unaccompanied alien child) status and would extend a family separation that never should have occurred,” attorneys with the Texas Immigration Law Council wrote in court documents before J.R.C. requested and was granted voluntary departure.
He was placed in ORR custody on May 3, four days after being detained with his dad. He was held at the processing center for a day, then spent four days in hotel rooms alone under the supervision of the Department of Homeland Security before being transferred to ORR care, court records show.
“Me dijeron que no me iban a separar de mi papá y me mintieron,” J.R.C. said as he worked on a puzzle after his July court hearing. “They told me they weren’t going to separate me from my dad and they lied to me.”
His attorneys argued that J.R.C. was wrongly classified as an “unaccompanied alien child” and unlawfully separated from his dad when detained in April, according to court documents. Rather, he should have been placed in the custody of his father’s partner, who was considered J.R.C.’s stepmother, they argue.
“ICE itself created the circumstance it now invokes by arresting petitioner’s father, separating JRC from his caregivers and then classifying him as unaccompanied based on the separation it engineered,” attorneys wrote in response to the boy’s detention.
In May, ORR facilitated three in-person visits between Reyes Hermes and his father.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement started processing a sponsorship application from his father’s partner – identified as the boy’s stepmother in court records. The woman was not able to apply for an individual taxpayer identification number, which is required to qualify as a sponsor, because she didn’t possess the necessary documents. She withdrew as a potential sponsor.
PODCAST: Inside children’s immigration court in El Paso
In a status report filed June 17, the federal government stated that according to ORR, the father would resume sponsorship as he was expected to “soon” be released from the immigration facility.
The father posted bond and was released June 24 – and that same day, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a negative credible fear determination, essentially turning down his asylum claim and triggering expedited removal proceedings.
In a July 7 status update to the court, the government said J.R.C.’s attorneys informed it the boy “now wishes to instead be reunited with his brothers and mother.” His mother is expected to meet him in Venezuela and take him to Colombia where she now lives.
The government stated that ORR informed its attorneys that Reyes Hermes “decided not to complete the reunification process and said it was best for the minor to return to his home country” and that the boy “expressed excitement at the possibility of returning to his home country and seeing his mother and siblings.”
That day, J.R.C. asked an immigration judge for voluntary deportation to return to Venezuela instead of continuing to pursue relief in immigration court. Immigration Judge Judith Bonilla granted his petition.
“Good luck to you and be careful,” Bonilla told the boy, who responded, “Gracias.”
Because of the June 24 earthquakes in Venezuela that killed some 4,500 people, Rosario said deportation arrangements might take longer than expected. Bonilla gave the government 120 days to arrange his deportation.
J.R.C., who has been in contact with his mother by phone, said he’s looking forward to that reunion.
“Ella me va a recibir. Me dice que me quiere ver, quiere abrazarme ya,” he said. “She’s going to welcome me. She tells me she wants to see me, and wants to hug me now.”
The post Children being separated from parents as ICE arrests in El Paso surge appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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