Adonay Mancia Rodríguez was spending a quiet Sunday at home in Morristown with his six-year-old daughter, Annabella. The two were watching cartoons together while his life partner, Gabby Rosa, was working a shift at a nearby Walmart.
His daughter said she was hungry, so Adonay ordered some food from a restaurant near their apartment.
About 20 minutes later, something happened that Gabby Rosa says none of them could have ever imagined: “He walked downstairs to pick up the food and was taken by ICE.”
“They took him and left my baby in the apartment all alone,” she told me in Spanish.
“No tienen corazón,” I thought. They are heartless. Who could do such a thing, right? And yet, in recent days we’ve all seen what they’re capable of doing. And how ruthlessly — without pause or remorse whatsoever.
The truth is we’re living in a country where inhumanity is now the norm.
Just days ago, Trump suggested that Renée Good’s fatal shooting was justified because she was “disrespectful.” He also reiterated ICE agent Jonathan Ross’ “absolute immunity” in the shooting.
Gabby says she was shocked and scared when she learned what was happening in her neighborhood.
It all happened at the same time that the laundromat across the street from their apartment on Speedwell Avenue was raided by federal immigration agents.
The raid there resulted in the detention of 10 people, including that of a local high school student.
Gabby told me she was busy at work when her cell phone suddenly started ringing.
“It was one of my neighbors, calling to tell me what was happening,” she says.
“She told me she’d seen my daughter, walking by herself on the street, crying, crying out for her dad, asking ‘Where’s Papi? Where’s Papi?’”
Annabella had wandered out of the apartment to look for her dad.
At that point, Gabby tells me, she rushed home in a panic, desperate to get to her daughter.
“Later, on social media, I saw videos of [Adonay] and of other people face down on the floor, being held down by ICE agents,” she said tearfully.
For Adonay, she told me, life has been difficult from the start.
He lost his mother at a young age and was forced to flee his homeland to escape gang violence and extreme poverty. She says he’s been living in New Jersey since 2013 and works at a Halal restaurant close by.
“He’s not a criminal, he doesn’t have a criminal record,” she said.
(I checked and all I found were two minor traffic tickets.)
“He’s a person who’s dedicated his life to working hard to provide a better future for us, for our daughter.”
His focus, she tells me, “has always, always been her.”
“I don’t want her to grow up without him, without one of her parents, the same way he did,” she says.
Since Adonay was taken by ICE and sent to the Elizabeth Detention Center, Gabby has been trying to find an immigration lawyer who can help with his case.
“Of course, that costs a lot of money, which we, unfortunately, don’t have,” she said.
Adonay’s aunt, Rosa Portilla, started a GoFundMe to raise money for his legal defense, and the family has so far raised a few thousand.
On Monday, Morristown Mayor Tim Dougherty posted a message on Facebook asking for pro bono legal help for people caught up in the laundromat raid.
“If there’s any immigration attorneys that want to help us and can assist the people that were picked up, swept up in this raid, our community would be very grateful,” Dougherty said in a video posted on the town’s official Facebook page.
“I would be very, very grateful for whatever help we can get,” Gabby said.
“My daughter won’t stop asking for her dad, she won’t stop crying, and begging to see him.
This situation is very, very difficult,” she says.
“I still can’t believe this happened, I still can’t believe they left a little child alone, a 6-year-old, without her dad, to fend for herself.”
I hate to say this, but I can.
No tienen corazón.
Read the original article on NJ.com.
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