MAGA MEA CULPA

Trump Voter Regrets His Decision as ICE Arrests His Fiancée

A lifelong Republican says the president is “destroying families.”

A Texas man says he laments casting his ballot for Donald Trump after immigration agents arrested and detained his fiancée, a Venezuelan-born immigrant.

John Gannon, a 75-year-old Republican, told CBS News he had planned to marry Yasmin Suarez Reyes, 45. But that’s on hold, he said, because Trump is “destroying families” with his immigration enforcement policies.

“I voted for Trump,” Gannon, a businessman who owns billboards in the U.S. and establishments in Mexico, told the outlet. “I wouldn’t do that again, not after this fiasco.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he said, is “picking up law-abiding citizens.”

Gannon said if he had the chance, he would tell Trump, “What are you doing? Go after the criminals. We’re all for that. But leave the moms and pops and the kids alone. Man, he’s destroying families.”

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Suarez Reyes was arrested on July 24 at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston while the two were on their way to Las Vegas for a furniture industry convention. ICE agents in plainclothes apprehended her after she passed through security, according to Gannon.

“After leaving the United room, eight officers, ICE agents, swarmed Yasmin and detained her. [They] didn’t tell us why and wrestled her off into a car,” he said, adding that he was “in total disbelief.”

Suarez Reyes’ immigration situation appears to be in a gray area.

Anne Kennedy, her immigration attorney, told CBS News she entered the U.S. legally, has no criminal record, and has a pending immigration case.

According to government records seen by CBS News, Suarez Reyes came to the U.S. in October 2023 under the Visa Waiver Program. She is a citizen of Spain, whose citizens can participate in the program, which generally expires after 90 days. Suarez Reyes applied for asylum before her 90 days were up, according to government documents, but the case remains unresolved.

Despite the fact that Suarez Reyes applied for asylum within the appropriate time frame, her permission to be in the U.S. still expired, and that was cause for her to be processed for deportation, ICE told Kennedy, she said.

Suarez Reyes was able to get a work permit and a driver’s license while her case was pending, Kennedy said. If she married Gannon, she could then apply for a green card or permanent U.S. residency, Kennedy added.

But since her arrest, Suarez Reyes has been held in a processing center in Conroe, Texas, according to ICE’s detainee tracking system.

“For almost two weeks now, she has been in a physical jail cell, when she has done nothing more than follow the laws of the United States and do what our immigration laws allow her to do,” Kennedy told CBS.

The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.

In a statement to the Daily Beast, a DHS spokesperson said in part: “On October 24, 2023, [Suarez Reyes] lawfully entered the U.S. and illegally overstayed her lawful admission which expired on January 19, 2024. Pending applications do NOT confer legal status. All of her claims will be heard by a Justice Department immigration judge, and she will receive full due process. This Administration is not going to ignore the rule of law.”

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Suarez Reyes’ potential deportation comes amid a surge in airport arrests of travelers with expired visas. This, according to The New York Times, is due to the expansion of an information-sharing agreement between ICE and the Transportation Security Administration.

The Times reports that hundreds of thousands of visitors to the U.S. overstay their visas annually.

A DHS spokesperson told the paper, “This administration is working diligently to ensure that aliens in our country illegally can no longer fly unless it is out of our country to self-deport.”

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