‘Why did they take my dad?’: Man arrested by ICE while delivering food with son, wife says

A Venezuelan mother is calling for the release of her husband, who she claims was deported to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador after being arrested while working with their son — all after he filled out paperwork to self deport, Telemundo Chicago reported.

“Why did they take my dad if he was only working with me?” 6-year-old Naybe Chacón said in Spanish after watching police arrest his father. “He didn’t do anything wrong. I was sitting there with my phone playing the games I had downloaded when the police suddenly came and arrested my dad.”

Luis Edixon Chacón Gomes, a 25-year-old father of three originally from Venezuela, was allegedly arrested by Milwaukee police on March 8 while delivering food through an app, accompanied by his son.

“I felt very sad. I was crying in the office where they had me. I couldn’t understand the police because they spoke English,” the child said.

According to his family, Gomes was arrested because his truck’s headlights were apparently not working. He was then transferred to a detention center in Broadview, Illinois, where he remained for almost a month.

“I think it’s unfair, because he was just working on his own, he wasn’t robbing anyone, he didn’t kill anyone, he’s not part of any gang, nor does he belong to any Tren de Aragua,” said his wife, Mariannys Galindez.

She noted her husband has tattoos, but none resemble the ones police have cited for potential gang members.

“The tattoos he has are names – his mother’s, his father’s, and my name,” she said.

Galindez said that days before her husband’s arrest, Gomes had signed papers to self-deport.

According to the Department of Justice, “voluntary departure allows you to leave the U.S. at your own expense within a specific amount of time in order to avoid a deportation order.”

It was not immediately clear how much time had passed from Gomes signing such papers and his deportation.

It was only through a video posted on the TikTok account of Gustavo Villatoro, who belongs to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security of El Salvador, that they learned he had been deported and imprisoned.

Gomes’ wife said she’s going through a difficult time because she can’t pay the rent without her husband. Relatives, both in Venezuela and the U.S., are calling for his release.

Telemundo Chicago reached out to ICE, as well as Wisconsin police, for more details on the case, but did not immediately receive a response.