He is a symbol of everything you're supposed to be: hardworking, tax-paying, and law-abiding. But, he isn’t a U.S. citizen and that makes him an enemy of Trump’s America.
Moises Sotelo, 54, built a thriving business in the heart of Oregon wine country. He employed nearly a dozen people and in 2020, was honored by the Oregon Wine Board for his dedication and excellence in vineyard care.
On the morning of June 12, federal ICE agents in unmarked trucks surrounded him just outside St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Newberg, not too long after he left for work. Without warning, they took him into custody.
As with so many other immigrant families, ICE did not notify Sotelo’s wife, children, or even the family’s newly hired attorney about his whereabouts. After days of searching, they found him in Tacoma, Washington. He was later transferred to Arizona. Now, his daughter says he’s is being deported to Nogales, Mexico.
The Case Against Sotelo
ICE alleges that Sotelo first entered the United States illegally in 2006 and has a criminal conviction for DUI.
But Sotelo’s family says he came to the United States in the early 1990s and has no criminal record.
Both the Yamhill County District Attorney’s Office and the Newberg Municipal Court confirmed there are no DUI charges on record, only a few speeding tickets.
Business owners in the Willamette Valley say Sotelo has worked in the area for decades.
ICE has yet to provide any evidence to support its claims.
ICE Is Rewriting the Rules—Literally and Figuratively
Across the country, ICE Agents are operating unchecked, masked, and unaccountable while the Department of Homeland Security quietly rewrites the laws meant to keep them in check. New DHS guidelines now require lawmakers to give at least 72 hours' notice before inspecting ICE facilities, stripping surprise inspections of their power and reducing transparency.
At the same time, DHS is using a recent Supreme Court ruling to accelerate deportations, not always to someone’s home country, but to any “alternative” destination. Some immigrants are being shipped to countries they’ve never lived in, where they don’t speak the language, often with less than 24 hours’ notice to fight it.
Turning Tides
A majority of American voters bought into Trump’s Immigration promises during the 2024 presidential campaign. They expected a crackdown on violent criminals and a safer Southern border.
But as of June 26, ICE was reporting an average of 930 daily arrests, about 42% of which involved people without charges or convictions.
That could be why Americans are rethinking their stand on immigration and the targeting of all those hardworking, undocumented immigrants like Moises Sotelo.
According to a new Gallup poll:
📊A record 79% of American adults now believe immigration is good for the country.
📊64% of Republicans now say immigration is good for the country, up from just 39% a year ago.
📊Just 38% of Americans back Trump’s mass deportation plan, down from 47% last July.
As for the Sotelo family, they’ve received an outpouring of support from Oregon’s wine community, including a GoFundMe campaign that’s raised over $155,000. Friends, family, and business owners have done everything they can to shine a light on his case. But the federal government isn’t listening. Sotelo is set to be deported to Mexico within days.
His wife plans to follow him soon. In the meantime, with his guidance from Mexico, their daughter told KGW TV she hopes to keep the business he built alive.
While the Sotelos are deeply grateful, many in the community are sounding the alarm for others who’ve been taken by ICE without any network of support, resources, or public attention.
“Moises is well-known in our community. There’s countless other people that we don’t know. We don’t know their names, we don’t know how many have been detained, and they’re just lost in this system, which seems designed to make them disappear.”