Heury Gómez’s family waited silently inside an apartment in Midtown Manhattan. His aunt looked through the peephole every 30 seconds to see if the 43-year-old man was approaching. Among those crowded in the narrow hallway were elderly people and children, all eager to see their loved one and hug them.
Then the door slowly opened.
“Welcome home!” several voices shouted in unison.
Gomez’s eyes lit up. A little boy ran into his arms, and his sister burst into intense, uncontrollable crying. Even the family’s 16-year-old dog greeted him warmly. He eventually returned home after spending months in an ICE detention center outside New York, despite having a valid and good green card.
Gomez, a green card holder, was preparing to become the permanent caregiver for his nonverbal, special-needs 18-year-old son, Noah, when federal agents arrested him on Aug. 5 of this year. The arrest occurred months after a judge granted him sole custody of the teenager.
Days later, on August 19, he was handcuffed and sent to a detention center in Michigan, hundreds of miles away. Alone and confused, he thought he would be deported.
“They took me to a room where there was a group of other (detainees) and they were all chained, and they put the chains on me too. They put me on a flight and I had no idea where they were taking me,” Gómez recalled. “I was very nervous because I didn’t know where they were taking me.”
Captive in ICE
Gómez spent almost four months in Michigan. He described the place as hell.
According to his cousin Carolina Zapata, Gómez entered the country legally and has had a green card for almost two decades, but ICE still targeted him for two minor crimes from almost ten years ago. Although Gómez always maintained his innocence, he was convicted in 2017 of attempted third-degree assault and attempted petit larceny, for a single incident that occurred in 2015.
His family says he spent 20 days in jail, served probation and paid the corresponding fines.
Inside the detention center, despite the minor nature of his crime, Gómez had to wear a red uniform, while others without criminal records wore blue.
“I saw a lot of blue uniforms, I don’t understand the red thing, because I have a minor sentence, and they mix me with people who committed much more serious crimes,” Gómez said.
He added that life was difficult being detained with serious criminals. He said that in one incident, other inmates attacked him and when he fought back, he was sent to solitary confinement for several weeks. He also revealed that some beans he was given were infested with worms and that he lost some hair due to stress.
Securing your freedom
While Gómez languished inside, Zapata worked for him outside.
In September, Zapata spoke to our sister publication, amNewYork, raised awareness about her case and started a GoFundMe that raised thousands of dollars for her legal fees, something she says was key to securing her release.
“One of the things I definitely learned from this experience is that having an excellent defense team is essential, and that is what is really sad about the situation. The community that is being attacked is vulnerable and does not have the resources to pay for this,” Zapata said. “Opening that GoFundMe was crucial in many ways, because not only did it cover his legal fees, but there were other financial implications that he hadn’t even considered.”
Thanks to financial support and public interest, a judge approved his release last week. According to Gómez, even the guards congratulated him, since many of those detained at the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin rarely leave, except for deportation.
On the morning of November 22, Gómez met Zapata in New York for the first time at Floridita, a diner in Washington Heights. After breakfast, the first thing he did was visit his elderly mother, whom the family had not told about her son’s arrest due to his health.
“I thank God for everything, for giving me the opportunity to be with my family,” Gómez said. “I am very grateful to be reunited with my family.”
Despite the joy, there was a certain sadness in his eyes.
amNewYork accompanied Gómez and Zapata as they went to the Bronx and knocked on their mother’s door. He ran in and hugged her tightly. She, putting her arm around his waist, complained:
“You don’t love me anymore, you don’t come to visit me anymore,” she said in Spanish, not knowing where her son had been for so long.
Later that night, after her family’s surprise welcome, Gomez took a solemn moment alone in her room. She took out of her suitcase a plastic bag where ICE had confiscated all her jewelry. He placed her on the bed, opened the bag, and placed a chain around his neck.
“Let me be with my family,” he said softly to himself.
In the living room, the family stood in a circle around the home-cooked meals they had prepared and prayed, thanking God for his safe return. Even Zapata, who led the fight for Gómez’s release, attributed everything to a superior force.
“I had to give a lot of this to God. I feel like I owe this to him, because he enlightened me and I am just an instrument for God’s work,” Zapata said. “The way it all unfolded, it was literally the hand of God.”
Gómez stated that the experience changed his perception: until his arrest, he believed that ICE only targeted serious criminals, until it was his turn.
For the future, he plans to resume his job as a night porter at The New School University and see his son again. He also wants to use his experience to help others.
“I really want to help other people, especially because I have seen many people detained just for entering the country illegally, without having committed a crime,” Gómez said. “I feel like I have a responsibility to get back into the community and help others.”
