Los Fresnos, Texas – The bakery of Leonardo Baez and Nora Avila-Guel in the Texas de los Fresnos community is a daily stop for many residents to share gossip on coffee and collect cakes and cakes for birthdays, office parties or themselves.
When the National Security Investigations Agents presented themselves at Abby’s Bakery in February and arrested the owners and eight employees, the residents of the asho were surprised. The abby bakery does not use violent criminals and Baez and Avila-Guel are not the people who border Tom Homan, call the “The worst of the worst” And he says they are the priority of mass deportations.
“I was surprised because I know they are not taking advantage of people,” said Esteban Rodríguez, 43, after entering the bakery parking lot to discover that he was closed. “It was more like helping people. They had nowhere to go, instead of being on the streets.”
The reaction in the city of 8,500 residents can show the limits of support to President Donald Trump’s immigration The repression in a majority Hispanic region dotted with cotton fields, sugar cane and red grapefruit where Republicans obtained profits in last year’s elections. Cameron Count First time since 1896.
Now, Báez and Avila-Guel, a Mexican couple who are permanent legal residents of the United States, could lose everything after being accused of hiding and hosting immigrants who were illegally in the United States. It is a rare case in which business owners face criminal charges instead of only one fine.
Los Fresnos, which is 90% Latino and counts the school district as its largest employer, is about half an hour by car between the United States and Mexico. Hundreds of school bus drivers, painters, retirees and parishioners of the nearby Catholic Church come to the Abby bakery every day. Customers with silver trays and tweezers select glass cabinet cakes.
Six of ABBy’s eight employees were in the United States with visiting visas, but none had work permits when national security research agents arrived at the business on February 12. The owners recognized that they knew that, according to a federal complaint.
Employees lived in a room with six beds and shared two bathrooms in the same building as the bakery, according to the affidavit of an agent.
Báez, 55, and Avila-Guel, 46, declared themselves innocent. They sent questions to their lawyers, who noticed that the workers were not retained against their will and there was no attempt to hide their presence, as a smuggler would.
As green card holders, the couple could be deported if they are convicted. They have five children who are American citizens.
The bakery closed for several days after its arrest, attracting about 20 people to protest on a cold night.
Monsignor Pedro Briseño of the Church of Santa Cecilia often visited before the morning mass for the Campechana, a mass of squamous and crispy pastry in caramelized sugar layers. His routine was interrupted when civil immigration agents arrived in unmarked vehicles.
“A woman came here crying. She said: ‘Father, father, they are taking my brother,” Briseño said. The priest approached and saw the agents use strips to link the hands of the employees.
There is an overwhelming bipartisan support to deport people in the United States illegally and have been convicted of a violent crime, with 82% in favor, according to a Associated Press-Norc-Norc Center for Public Asfairs Research Poll In January. The support is considerably softened for the deportations of all people in the country illegally, with 43% in favor and the opposite 37%.
Trump and the best assistants repeatedly emphasize that they are deporting criminals. But, as homan often says, others in the country are illegally there when officers arrest criminals It will also be deporteda deviation from the practices of the Biden administration.
Until now, Trump has avoided the large scale Factory and office raids That characterized his first term and that of Republican President George W. Bush. Dispersed reports of smaller operations included recent arrests of 37 people in a Roof business in the north of the state of Washington.
ICE says he made 32,809 arrests in Trump’s first 50 days in office, or a daily average of 656, which compared to an average of 311 for a period of 12 months that ended on September 30. ICE said that almost half (14,111) were convicted criminals and almost a third (9,980) had pending positions, but did not specify the charges.
People with deep links in their communities and without criminal records tend to generate more sympathy.
Abby reopened after the owners were released on bail.
Chela and Alicia Vega, two 60 -year -old sisters who retired from the school district and met the bakery owners for years, were among the clients who filled trays with cakes. Chela Vega said the couple once took a week free of work to take them to San Luis Potosi in Mexico after her sister died. When a hurricane hit, Leonardo Báez cut his damaged trees without charge.
For Terri Sponsler, 61, purchases at Abby’s now is A political statement. “With everything that happens at this time in our country, we need to find ways of protest,” he said.
Mark W. Milum, the administrator of the city of Los Fresnos, said that Abby’s is an important business that contributes taxes to property and sales to the annual municipal budget of $ 13 million.
Some customers love products.
“Other bakeries appear, right?” Ruth Zamora said, 65. “But when you go there, it’s not the same.”
