Jesus Alberto “Beto” Lopez Gutierrez, 24, was on his way home from a camping trip with friends when their car was pulled over by police in Iowa. Officers then transferred him to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. Since May 2019, Gutierrez has been held in immigration detention.

As told to Irene Romulo.

             I work in after-school programs teaching art. I was giving the class, I was talking, doing all the things, but at the same time I felt like I was not present. What was going through my mind was, how am I going to tell my parents? That was the worst. I didn’t want to do it. How do you tell your parents that your brother has been taken by ICE?



             The main challenge [we face] is that there’s nothing that supervises what [ICE] do. They do what they want and they use whatever is in their power to block people from being released although they qualify for relief. Another challenge has been the fact he’s detained away from us. He’s not close to us. I feel like that has been a challenge because of the extra amount of resources that we’ve had to come up with. For example, to travel to Omaha to be present in his court hearings. We were able to do that twice and we got a lot of support from people there and here but it’s a challenge that he’s all the way over there and ICE didn’t want to transfer him closer to us. 



             I think it’s important to acknowledge the privilege I had that I’d been organizing before this happened. I had a little bit more understanding of how this worked. But when someone is detained it feels really urgent. I would tell folks going through this to get informed or find folks who know how these processes work so that you have a little bit more understanding of what the process is like of someone being detained. Organizing is like a network and it’s all about asking, “Hey, do you know this? Can you help me with that?” Definitely always hearing second opinions from lawyers or community members. We’re often going to hear in the legal route that things can’t move. This is how things are and there’s no other option, but it’s all a matter of being persistent. 

Gutierrez’s parents, Miguel Lopez and Lourdes, talked about how they are dealing with their son’s detention. Although they both worry about Miguel’s public organizing, they find strength in each other, in prayer, and in witnessing Miguel’s love for his brother.