In El Monte, California, a mother is living every parent’s nightmare—detained by ICE despite no criminal record, leaving her daughter, Xitlali, to fight bone cancer alone.
Yolanda, 50, and her son Johnathan were recently taken into custody, leaving her daughter, Xitlali, 21, without a caregiver.
“Ma, it’s okay. You didn’t do anything,” Xitlali said as she tried to comfort her mother. Captured on video, the heartbreaking moment showed ICE agents handcuffing Yolanda, who, through tears, could only respond, “But they’re going to take me away.”
Agents allegedly refused to show a warrant despite the family’s pleas. Then, without warning, they grabbed Johnathan.
“They pushed him into the car, and without questions, they grabbed him. They were telling him that he had the warrant, but he didn’t show it,” Xitlali recalled per local news.
With no criminal record, Yolanda was Xitlali’s lifeline and provided the essential care her daughter couldn’t live without, family members said.
“When I’m taking chemo I feel very, very bad, I can’t do anything, I can’t even wake up properly, I’m half asleep. She helps me, she bathes me, she changes me, she makes my food,” Xitlali explained.
Johnathan had served time for a crime nearly a decade ago, but his sister believes he was unfairly targeted.
Yolanda, on the other hand, appears to be a “collateral detention”—a practice where ICE detains individuals who happen to be present during enforcement actions.
“There would be a possibility, if ICE grants a certain pardon that would allow the mother to fight her case in court instead of staying in detention, but that would be based on a humanitarian issue and doesn’t guarantee they would let her in the country,” the family’s attorney, David Acalin, said.
With her mother and brother locked away in separate centers, Xitlali is left without the two people she depends on most
”I feel like my life is falling apart,” she said.
Rather than give up, she’s channeling her fight into online fundraising, determined to be reunited.
ICE has yet to provide any comment on the case.
