Grand Junction man grieves loss of his dad, who was kidnapped by ICE

Victor Soto-Zamora of Grand Junction, 25, feels the loss of his father every day.

In 2018, when Victor was 17, he was attending high school in Garden City, Kansas, where he was born and raised. His dad, Leonel Soto, was a night shift janitor at the Tyson meat processing plant. His dad had just gotten a raise and wanted to take the family out to celebrate. The family was excited.

Soon after, Victor was at school finishing a science class and was supposed to head to ROTC drill practice next, when his teacher handed him a note. It said he should not go to drill practice and instead needed to wait outside the school for his step mom, who was coming to get him. Victor thought this was strange, because his parents were very strict about him attending all his classes. He started to worry about his family and siblings. When the bell rang, he waited outside for his stepmom to pick him up. When she arrived, Victor got in the car. He could tell she seemed upset about something. Victor started to talk about school when his stepmom asked if she could speak. She told him Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents had  taken Victor’s dad away. Victor started to worry about his dad and what this meant for his family. He was aware his father had been awarded full custody of him and his siblings by a court, so the the family’s future suddenly became uncertain.

Victor’s dad had not become a U.S. citizen because lawyers were too expensive. His stepmom told Victor that ICE agents had come to their house while Victor was at school and banged on their door. His sisters were crying. His stepmom eventually opened the door. The ICE agents came inside the house, ordered his dad to go outside and they handcuffed him and took him away. That was the last time the family saw Leonel, and suddenly Victor’s step mom was left to raise a family of 8 kids all alone.

Victor’s stepmom hired a lawyer to help get his dad back, but to no avail.

Leonel got deported anyway. He now lives in Durango, Mexico. Victor hasn’t seen him for 8 years. He and his dad text each other and occasionally talk on the phone, but that’s all.  After ICE took his dad away, Victor said he felt a lot of pressure to help care for his four brothers and three sisters. Despite this, about a year after Victor lost his dad, he left home to go and live with his aunt, because his stepmom had begun treating him poorly.

Victor is also a transgender man, which presented additional difficulties he had to face without his dad. Victor has transitioned within the last two years. He told his dad he was transgender, and his dad reassured Victor that he was his first-born and he loved him, no matter what. That was a testament to how much Victor’s dad loves him, and it was a big relief to Victor, who acutely feels the loss of his dad even now, 8 years after ICE took him away.

Victor is trying to get his story of loss out publicly because he wants to put a stop to the U.S. government breaking up families and forcing kids to witness their family members being kidnapped and disappeared. He agrees immigrants with criminal records should be deported, but says hard working families should be left alone. He wants to share his story to help other families who have suffered a similar fate, and also share the fact that he is transgender person who has successfully transitioned amid all this difficulty. He invites people in similar situations — who have had a parent kidnapped and disappeared by ICE, or are transgender, or both — to contact him for support and encouragement about how to navigate these difficult situations. Victor currently works at WalMart, but his goal is to eventually go to college, become a mental health therapist and use his own experience to help others in similar situations.

If you want to get in touch with Victor, email anne@annelandmanblog.com for contact information.