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Escalating ICE arrests under the Trump administration’s mass deportation policy are hardly happening in a vacuum.
Besides the individuals directly targeted and their families and friends, the ripple effects are being felt across U.S. communities as ICE sweeps up not only those accused of crimes but, in many cases, law-abiding residents with no criminal records, deep roots in the places they live, and who not only do no harm to their communities but actually help make them better places to live.
Ask Lucinda “Sandy Feet” Wierenga, long-time South Padre Island resident and renowned sand sculptor.
On Oct. 15, her friend, handyman and tenant Alfredo Mendez was grabbed by ICE on the Island while driving Wierenga’s husband’s car and taken to Harlingen for processing.
“The way he tells it, he was stopped for a traffic light, and this black SUV pulled up behind him and tailgated him, basically,” Wierenga told The Brownsville Herald after she was finally able to speak to Mendez. “He switched lanes, the SUV would switch lanes, just harassing him, really, until he pulled over. And then I showed up.”
Mendez told her the ICE agents, oddly enough, asked if he was her husband’s brother.
“The car is registered in Jose Sanchez’s name,” Wierenga said. “That’s my husband. He has a brother named Obed, but that brother has nothing to do with this car, no ownership of any sort or ever did. So, you know, they obviously did some kind of search on the license plate. I don’t know.”
She said she was horrified by the encounter, which she captured on video and posted on Facebook.
Wierenga said Mendez and his 9-year-old daughter had been living in her studio apartment for about two years, Mendez providing handyman services in exchange for rent. Wierenga said the daughter was staying part time with her mother in Los Fresnos, though now she’s there full time since ICE grabbed her dad.
“She kind of bounced back and forth, but she stayed here a lot,” Wierenga said. “I know her very well. We’ve spent a lot of time together. I’m kind of her third grandparent, I guess.
“We’re very fond of her, and now she has to go back with her mother. I’m sure that will all be fine, but we are very sad about it and are hoping that we can still spend some quality time with her. She has to come visit her dogs here. Her mother can’t take the dogs right now. It’s just too much for her, and we don’t mind. We’re happy to help in any way we can.”
Alfredo’s two dogs are named Bruno and Coco Bean.
“We already have six dogs, so now we’re taking care of his two dogs as well,” Wierenga said.
Mendez drove his daughter to school every morning and picked her up every afternoon, then took her to piano lessons,” Wierenga said.
“You know, he’s a really good dad,” she said.
Mendez was active in his church and taught Sunday school before being taken, and had been helping Wierenga and Sanchez through a very difficult time, she said.
“My husband has stage four 4 cancer, and he’s going through chemo right now,” Wierenga said. “And Alfredo has just been my rock through all this. We’re just trying to adjust to not having him around. We helped him. He helped us. It’s been a beautiful relationship.”
Mendez did a number of jobs for her over the last decade or so before moving into the studio apartment with his daughter, she said.
“Alfredo just helped us out around here,” Wierenga said. “He has a lot of skills. He builds things, he fixes things, he diagnoses problems other people have not been able to diagnose.
“He’s just an amazing human being, in my opinion, and I felt very lucky to have him around. We have two aging houses, and things are going wrong constantly. So we loved him for many reasons — still love him.”
She said it was disappointing to learn that he lacked legal status.
“I give him a (Form) 1099 every year,” Wierenga said. “I don’t know what happens to it at that point, but I’m reporting it (to the IRS) with the (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number) that he gave me, and I had no reason to believe that he was not completely legal.”
At the same time, there was no legitimate reason for ICE to target him, she said.
“There was no reason for him to be pulled over,” Wierenga said. “That should scare everybody, I think, that they can do that and get away with it. Because they can find something on lots of people. It’s just heartbreaking to me. He’s not doing anybody any good sitting in a box when he could be productive, as he has been.
“So many people, people who are in high places on South Padre Island, have employed this man. He’s been here over 20 years. He started off, I think, busing tables at Jake’s decades ago.”
A Facebook group, “Friends of Alfredo,” has been set up for people who want to help, and Wierenga has launched a GoFundMe page, “Help Alfredo Mendez Come Home,” to help pay for a lawyer.
“There are a lot of people who care about Alfredo and who’ve asked what can they do to help,” she said. “We’re hoping that members of the community will, when it’s appropriate, write letters of recommendation.”
Wierenga said she doesn’t know anyone with a bad word to say about Mendez — even his ex-wife.
“I spent time with her yesterday, and she’s pretty sad about all this too,” she said.
Wierenga said that when she talked to Mendez recently, she asked if he had a Bible, and he answered “yes,” adding, “and I have men here who want to hear what I have to say. I have a job here.”
“He’s not despairing,” she said. “He’s not giving up. He wants to fight his fight, and we’re going to help him every way we can. … He doesn’t want to live in darkness. He wants to do the right thing.
“The day before this all happened, he said, ‘I noticed your brake light was out on your truck, and I fixed it for you, so you don’t have to worry about that anymore,’” Wierenga said. “I mean, that’s just the kind of guy he is. He saw a problem and he just fixed it.”