A pair of mothers from Forsyth County whose husbands were recently detained by immigration officials spoke out for the first time to denounce the detentions as new Republican immigration enforcement bills advance in the North Carolina legislature.
Cynthia Bautista and Sindy Lopez spoke at a Raleigh press conference hosted by the group Siembra NC and afterwards met with Democratic representatives who oppose expanding immigration enforcement in the state.
Bautista and Lopez said they're suffering economic and emotional distress in the absence of the fathers of their infant children, who have contacted their wives and described inhumane conditions in immigration jails. The women say their husbands did not have criminal records.
"My husband is a caretaker ... my oldest son is closest to his father and he has lost his best friend," said Cynthia Bautista, 34, at a Raleigh press conference. "Now it is solely my responsibility to pay the bills, to take care of my children and to be strong for them."
Distress and harsh conditions in detention
The men were separately arrested in February by immigration officials in Florida and South Carolina 鈥� respectively 鈥� during traffic stops over minor traffic violations while traveling for construction jobs.
Bautista has legal status under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, knows as DACA, and has been in the U.S. since she was a child. Bautista is now left to care for four children in the absence of her husband, Juan Rosa Meza, who is the family's primary earner.
Rosa Meza, who lacks legal status, was returning home to Winston-Salem from a construction job related to hurricane repairs in Sarasota, Florida, said Bautista. He and other immigrant workers were allegedly stopped by the Florida Highway Patrol in a van for not stopping at a vehicle weigh station when he was detained. Rosa Meza did not have a criminal record, she said.
Rosa Meza is being held in the Krome Detention Center in South Florida, and told his wife in a brief phone call that he's being held in cramped rooms with dozens of other men who have to share a single bathroom in the open.
Sindy Lopez, 21, arrived in 2023 as an asylum seeker with her husband Jasua Sierra Carranza, while seeking refuge from violence in Honduras.
Lopez, cares for her three-year-old son and doesn't work, says her husband was allegedly stopped by law enforcement in York County, South Carolina, while traveling for work and was cited for speeding and driving without a license. He is currently being held in the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia.
"(My husband) says he's been mistreated in detention and didn't have a bed to sleep on until recently," said Lopez. "My son doesn't know his father is gone. He hasn't been eating. I've been telling him that his father is at work, so that he'll eat."
The Republican immigration bills
Advocacy groups including Siembra NC and El Pueblo say Senate Bill 153, which aims to ease the deportation of people without legal status who are charged with crimes, will separate immigrant families over minor offenses.
The bill, dubbed the , would require several state agencies like the North Carolina State Highway Patrol and the Department of Public Safety to enter into agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
It was approved by the Senate this week and has moved to the House of Representatives.
"These are faces and stories that legislators need to hear and see," Rep. Marcia Morey, D-Durham, told 瓜神app. "It's not only deporting someone, it's destroying families. It's destroying our workforce in North Carolina."
Rep. Morey is part of a progressive caucus in the North Carolina House of Representatives that has filed and , which would prohibit immigration enforcement arrests in sensitive locations like schools, churches, and workplaces like farms and construction sites.
This week, North Carolina House Speaker Destin Hall introduced to "strengthen" the existing law under House Bill 10, enacted in December, which requires county jails to cooperate with ICE requests to detain migrants charged with violent crimes.
The new bill would expand the categories of offenses to include fraud, drunk driving, embezzlement, forgery and theft.
"ICE doesn't have enough resources to meet the current needs, so I think it makes sense for state level law enforcement to cooperate with them," Rep. Hall told reporters Tuesday.
Rep. Hall argued against the claim of the negative economic impact of deporting workers, and maintained that the job market could improve for immigrants with legal status and American citizens in the absence of unlawful immigrant workers who are paid lower wages.
"Illegal immigration has a lot of impacts on the country," said Rep. Hall. "We know we've got a shortage of housing and folks who are here illegally they got to live somewhere and so they're taking the housing."
