Nancy Parra and her husband, Mauricio Martínez, left their home in Colombia and moved to Eden Prairie in 2022 in search of a better life for their children.

That goal now feels farther away than ever after Mauricio was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during a traffic stop on Jan. 9 while driving home from work, Parra said in an interview translated from Spanish. Mauricio is seeking asylum in the United States and has no criminal record.

He also has a valid Minnesota driver’s license, Parra said.

Mauricio’s detention

The week before ICE detained Mauricio, Parra said her family had grown nervous about the dangers of leaving their apartment. She asked her husband to stay home and avoid working at the car dealership he owned with a friend in Cambridge or making deliveries for Spark Drive.

Despite those concerns, Mauricio went out Jan. 5 and 6 to make Spark Drive deliveries because the dealership was struggling to sell cars. When he returned home on Jan. 6, Parra said, he told her that being out felt dangerous.

Parra, who works for Eden Prairie Schools, said she reached out to her employer about possible help with rent, worried it was unsafe for her husband to continue driving to work at the dealership.

“I told him not to go out,” Parra said. “He said, ‘The rent …’ I said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll find the rent. I’ll look for help through the school.’ I had already talked to see who could help with rent.”

Parra said she felt safer going to work because her school and her children’s schools are close to their apartment, allowing the family to maintain that source of income. Mauricio, however, was the family’s primary provider, and his income covered many of the family’s recurring expenses.

Mauricio did not leave their home Jan. 7 or 8, but on Friday, Jan. 9, he went to the dealership in Cambridge for a scheduled inspection, Parra said.

“He told me, ‘I have to go,’ and I told him not to, that it was risky. He said, ‘If I don’t go, they’ll close the dealer and I can’t lose all that money.’ So he went,” Parra said.

Parra called her husband when she got home from work around 2:50 p.m. He told her the dealership was missing a few signs after the inspection and that he would head home once it was taken care of. He left Cambridge around 3 p.m.

While cooking lunch for her family and talking on the phone with her mother, Parra checked her husband’s location and saw that he was pulled over on the side of the highway in Brooklyn Park. She hung up with her mother and called Mauricio.

Before Parra could even call her husband, he texted her: “Love, they got me, they got me.”

Parra said her husband later told her he was surrounded by four vehicles and eight ICE agents who blocked his car. Agents asked for his documentation, and he provided his Minnesota driver’s license, though ICE only accepts green cards or U.S. passports.

The agents brought Mauricio into one of their vehicles and handcuffed him, Parra said. He asked to move his car off the highway, and an agent eventually drove it to a nearby gas station, where Parra later found it.

Mauricio’s business partner, who was in the car with him, was also detained.

“Both of them are needed to sign papers to transfer or sell the dealer and recover the money invested,” Parra said. “Both are detained. We don’t know what to do.”

Mauricio called Parra from a station in Bloomington the day after he was detained and told her he would be transferred to an ICE facility in El Paso, Texas. He urged his wife to be careful and to warn their loved ones as well, saying that the vast majority of people brought to the Bloomington station had been “brought in from the roads.”

By Jan. 11, Parra said Mauricio was in Texas. She called the facility where he was being held and confirmed his location.

Her husband did not have a deportation order, Parra said.

Mauricio told Parra he was living in poor conditions during their most recent phone call. He said agents treated him like a criminal, giving him only water and carrots and not providing a place to sleep, forcing him to sleep on the floor.

Parra said her husband told her it is very difficult for detainees to be released and questioned whether it was worth hiring a lawyer.

Eden Prairie Local News contacted ICE about Mauricio’s detention but has not received a response as of publication.

Living in fear

Parra said she wants her husband to return home, especially since opening his dealership was a long-time dream of his.

“We’ve always done our taxes every year, everything is up to date,” Parra said. “I don’t understand why there is so much injustice just for immigrating and trying to find a better future and safety.”

With her husband detained, Parra said she is scared to leave the house or send her children out. She stopped going to work, and her three children, an 11-year-old and twin 6-year-olds, have stopped attending school.

“Right now I’m scared to go out, that they’ll grab me,” Parra said.

An interruption to daily life

Parra’s younger children, twin 6-year-olds, attend a Spanish immersion school. Earlier this week, their teacher came to their home to drop off coursework while they are not attending school until they feel safe to return.

“I’m here at home teaching them, but it hasn’t been easy,” Parra said. “I’m thinking about everything, watching the news — this has been an extremely heavy burden. I haven’t really been able to sit down with them and teach consistently.”

Her 11-year-old son attends an English-speaking school, she said. Parra does not speak English, so she is not able to help him with his schoolwork.

Parra and her children plan to move in with her sister because they can no longer afford rent at their current apartment. She said she plans to sell what remains in the apartment to raise money, along with several cars left at her husband’s dealership.

A dream to return home

Parra hopes to use the money to pay for plane tickets for her family to return to Colombia. The family had tried to return to their home country in December, but their lawyer advised them to pause the process after deportations surged across the state.

The family came to the United States seeking better opportunities for their children, including access to education and safety from drugs, Parra said. They left their home in search of “some peace of mind.”

Parra added that her children and sisters have kept her afloat during the hardship. She also said Mauricio has been a good father to her children.

“Even though, as a couple, like everyone, we’ve had arguments, he’s been a good dad, he’s very attentive,” Parra said. “We’ve never gone without a plate of food. He doesn’t deserve what’s happening.”

An outpouring of community support

If her family’s situation improves in the near future, she hopes to return to her job and for her children to return to school, she said.

“I emailed them asking if they could keep my job for me; they said yes,” Parra said. “They’ve been very supportive, they call to see if we’re OK, what we need. They are angels, truly. We’ve been surrounded by angels.”

Parra said community members who have reached out to help have been very supportive, providing her family with food and financial assistance. She launched a GoFundMe on Tuesday that had already raised more than $4,000.

“People here have not discriminated; they say, ‘We’re here, we’ll help, what do you need?’ We’ve had lots of food, they’ve helped us a lot,” Parra said. “Now we’re waiting to see what comes, hoping this gets better. I hope that for all the people who stay here fighting for their future but haven’t achieved what they hoped for, God lets their dreams come true.”

Eden Prairie Local News

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