Man Deported by ICE Dies Months Later as Family Struggles to Cope

Jose Sanchez was deported in November 2024 and died in January 2025 while trying to cross the Rio Grande. He was the sole breadwinner of his family while his wife, Tiffany Barrera, took care of the home. Barrera and her children have struggled to survive since his death in January.

Tiffany Barrera, 31, is a newly widowed mother in San Antonio, with five children who attend three different schools. Since her husband's death, her evenings have become chaotic with school pick-ups. She said “It is crazy,” because she cannot pay for gas to pick up her children. She has asked the school to help her with a bus route.

Barrera is now adjusting to her new life as the sole caregiver of her family. “He was all we had,” said Barrera, who was born in the United States. “He was our main support. He did everything for us,” Barrera said. Her children are having trouble eating and sleeping. They get counseling services at school, but Barrera says they need more support.

They are grieving and struggling to survive at the same time. “My son has to live without his dad,” Barrera spoke about her six year old. At night he sleeps with one of Sanchez’s T-shirts stretched over his pillow.

"There is no readily available data showing how many women have found themselves in situations like that of Barrera's, but it is an emerging trend," said Michelle Mendez, director of legal resources and training at the National Immigration Project.

The Trump administration said it carried out more than 622,000 deportations, but the administration declined to provide underlying data to support its claim.

Most children in the United States with an undocumented immigrant parent, who were born in the United States are citizens of the country, according to a report from the Pew Research Center Report.

As of 2023, the report found that 7.5 million U.S. households include unauthorized immigrants, and about 4.6 million American children live with an unauthorized immigrant parent.

According to Barrera, Sanchez was detained by U.S. Immigrant and Customs Enforcement in November, a few days before Thanksgiving. He was a roofer and was returning from his second job of the day.

Barrera said Sanchez called her when the sheriff's deputy pulled him over. She asked him to stay calm and follow instructions so that he would not get into trouble. She translated for the officer who did not speak Spanish, and explained that Sanchez was not a citizen, but his citizenship application was pending.

Sanchez’s immigration lawyer Vanessa Alonso, said this should have protected him from deportation until his case was resolved. “We were working on doing it right away,” Barrera said.

While talking to USA Today Barrera said he kept requesting the officer to not take him as he had his children in the United States. Barrera and Sanchez had been together for 10 years. Sanchez was the biological father of one of her five kids, but he took care of all of them.

Barrera said since her mother died in 2021, she has been all by herself. Two days after Sanchez’s arrest, he was deported from San Antonio, where he had lived for 13 years, to Mexico. In late January 2025, he died while trying to cross Rio Grande to return to his family.