ICE rips family apart in Athens, leaves 12-year-old alone and afraid

The family in this story has asked that only their first names be used out of fear of further ICE action.

Kendra, a 12 year old girl living in the Hallmark mobile home park in Athens, was left isolated last Monday after both her parents and two of her grandparents were taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). At the time of publication, Kendra still does not know where her father is or if he remains in good health.

The detention of Kendra’s family happened early in the morning on Monday, July 20. When Francisco, Kendra’s godfather and a legally-documented immigrant from Zacatecas, Mexico, heard the news, he immediately told his wife Kerry that ICE had taken his family. Kendra’s father Carlos, her mother Laura, her grandfather Miguel and her grandmother Josephina, who is Francisco’s sister, were all taken. This left Kendra, who has a pending asylum application, home alone without a guardian.

Kerry, who is white, left work and headed for Hallmark as quickly as she could. She refused to allow Francisco to go with her, even though he is a legal resident, because “ICE don’t care except for one thing, and that’s the color of your skin,” Kerry told APN.

While at Hallmark, Kerry heard that Kendra’s family had been taken while on the job at the mobile home park where they live doing lawn maintenance, landscaping and house cleaning. According to video evidence taken by neighbors, ICE agents had pulled Josephina, a middle-aged woman, from her work vehicle so aggressively that she cried out in pain. She later told Francisco that she feared her arm might be broken.

“They tried to break my sister’s arms,” Francisco told APN. “Why? She’s no criminal.”

Kerry took Kendra to her home just outside Athens while they tried to figure out what happened to their family and what they should do next. Francisco and Kerry got a phone call from Josephina later that night telling them that Laura, Miguel and herself were together and doing okay despite their ordeal. The three of them were taken to an ICE detention facility in Atlanta where they now await their deportation back to Mexico.

While Josephina and Laura had only lived in the US for about four years, Miguel had been living and working in Georgia peacefully for almost forty years.

The whereabouts of Carlos, Kendra’s father, are still unknown to the family at this time.

Witnesses told Kerry that ICE agents had Carlos “down on the ground and were beating him with guns pulled in his face,” when he was detained, which was the last time his family saw him. He was taken in a separate vehicle and may not be in the same detention facility as the others. 

Kerry says that she filed a missing person report with ACC police and with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in an attempt to discover Carlos’ location, but to no avail.

“I don’t know where to go from here,” Kerry said. “We’re not trying to get him to not be deported, if that makes sense. We get that. We just want to know that he’s okay. This is his child,” she said, motioning to Kendra. “She has that right to know that ‘my Dad is okay.’ I need to hear his voice telling me that he is okay.”

UPDATE (8/17/26): Carlos has been found.

On August 9, Kerry says she was contacted by the wife of a friend who Carlos made while in detention, who informed her of Carlos’ location. Carlos is currently being held in Butts County jail and now communicates with Kerry’s family regularly. For three weeks, Carlos was denied a free phone call by authorities, leaving his family unaware of his location and unable to provide him with the money he needed to use the telephone. Fortunately, Carlos’ friend told his wife about his plight, and she was able to connect them.

According to Kerry, Carlos says that he was “beaten, pepper-sprayed and tased” while being detained. Due to his injuries, he lost consciousness and had to be taken to the hospital first before being placed in Butts County jail.

For now, Kendra will stay with Kerry and Francisco, but long-term, her future is unclear.

“I would like to keep her [Kendra] here, she would have a good home,” Kerry said. “I think she would be better off here, but I also know that she wants to be with her mom. There are going to be some hard decisions to make for all of us.”

Zacatecas, Mexico, where Kendra’s family is from, is on the US State Department’s “do not travel” list due to a risk of violence “from terrorist groups, cartels, gangs and criminal organizations.”

A large ICE operation is unfolding across Athens

The detention of Kendra’s family comes amidst a large and continuing immigration crackdown in Athens-Clarke County. According to Heidi Schmidt of the Athens Immigrant Rights Coalition, ICE took at least 11 local residents from July 17 to July 21, detaining them outside the county. While this represents far more detentions than normal, the actual number could be higher than advocates are aware. 

Volunteer community observers continue to report ICE vehicle sightings, which are typically black or grey SUVs and trucks with tinted windows and windshields according to Schmidt. From photo and video evidence provided by the coalition, the ICE agents responsible appear to be wearing military-style vests but otherwise lack a uniform. Observers have primarily seen agents targeting people individually in Hispanic-majority neighborhoods and at workplaces across town known to hire immigrants.

Members of the Athens Immigrant Rights Coalition said in a press release that they believe none of the 11 detained people have a criminal record.

The Athens Immigrant Rights Coalition connected Kerry’s family with a lawyer, although it is unclear if legal action will be able to halt the deportations or to extract Josephina and the others from detention. Kerry’s family started a GoFundMe, which she says would be used for legal expenses, including Kendra’s pending asylum case, with any leftover funds going towards Kendra’s education.  

Lori Garrett-Hatfield, a member of the Athens Immigrant Rights Coalition’s education committee and an ESOL teacher in the Clarke County school system, told APN that there are many school-age children in Athens dealing with ICE-related trauma. 

“It’s heartbreaking when we know our friends and neighbors in the community are, for all intents and purposes, kidnapped. They’re taken,” Garrett-Hatfield said. “From my personal experience as a teacher, we have kids who have major PTSD. They get angry. They get depressed. They don’t eat. They’re afraid to come to school because they’re worried about what might happen to mom and dad.”

Kerry had some extremely harsh words for ICE, comparing modern-day treatment of immigrants in the US to the way the Nazis treated Jewish people during World War II.

“I don’t use these words lightly. But this is a modern day holocaust,” Kerry told APN. “Just because it’s not called a concentration camp doesn’t mean it’s not. If they’re that cruel in public, how do you think they are being treated inside the building?”

The Athens Interfaith Sanctuary Coalition has also released a statement condemning the recent escalation of immigration enforcement in Athens.

CORRECTION (7/27/26): This article originally stated that Kendra was 11 years old. That was inaccurate; she is 12.

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