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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says his state is leading the way on immigration enforcement. In just one weekend this month, Florida officials say they arrested more than a thousand migrants they say entered the country illegally. The Trump administration says it's a preview of what's to come across the U.S. - large-scale federal operations in close partnership with local law enforcement. NPR's Jasmine Garsd brings us this story about how the arrest of a local pastor is rippling one small central Florida community.
JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE: If you live out by the Little Manatee River in the swamplands south of Tampa, you probably know the name Maurilio Ambrocio. He's an evangelical pastor at a local church. He's lived here for 20 years. Ambrocio also owns a landscaping business. And a few weeks ago, news about him spread fast.
GREG JOHNS: We were helping a neighbor, and he said, did you hear? I was like, hear what? He said, he heard that Maurilio got deported. I was like, what? What did you just say?
GARSD: This is Maurilio Ambrocio's neighbor, Greg Johns. His eyes water as he recalls when Hurricane Milton hit last year. Ambrocio called to ask if he was OK.
JOHNS: Do you need propane? Do you need water? What do you need? That's the type of neighbor - you know, this man is a part of the neighborhood.
GARSD: Johns says he voted for President Trump last November. In fact, he did so at Ambrocio's church, which doubles as a polling booth.
JOHNS: I did. I did because I was not happy with, you know, some of the direction that the country was going.
GARSD: He was hoping migrants with criminal records would be targeted, but this, he said - this is not what he expected.
JOHNS: You're going to take, you know, a community leader, a pastor, a hardworking man. What, did you need a number that day?
GARSD: That day was April 18. Ambrocio had gone in for one of his mandatory check-ins with immigration agents. Pastor Ambrocio has a form of legal protection called a stay, and that means although he entered the U.S. unlawfully, he's allowed to stay as long as he meets with immigration officials who ask him if he's still employed and hasn't committed any crimes. But on April 18, that didn't matter. He was detained. NPR reached out to ICE to ask why Ambrocio was detained this time around. In an email, they said, because he was in the U.S. illegally. They didn't clarify why now. Here's Ambrocio's wife, Marleny.
MARLENY AMBROCIO: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: "For my five children," she says, "it's like the world ended."
(SOUNDBITE OF EGG FRYING)
GARSD: While she fries an egg for breakfast, she tells me she dreams about her husband every night. Last night, she says, he knocked on the door of their trailer home. "In the dream, he bought me perfume."
M AMBROCIO: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: "And he started spraying it on me. I giggled, and I said, Maurilio, when did they release you?"
M AMBROCIO: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: "But he didn't respond. He just looked at me silently." And then she woke up to the very real problems her husband's detention has left them with.
M AMBROCIO: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: "How are we going to eat?" she asks, "to pay the bills?" Maurilio was the breadwinner. All of his children are American citizens. The four youngest are still in school. Nineteen-year-old Ashley is now the only one with a job - several jobs, in fact.
We walk out to the field, away from the trailer and her mother. A thunderstorm is coming. The cicadas scream, and a hot breeze runs through the Spanish moss. Like many young Americans whose migrant parents have been detained, the burden to provide for her family now falls on her. She's had to take over her dad's landscaping business, learning payroll, coordinating job assignments and speaking to his clients. She's also taken on a lot of his pastoral duties at church, and she's a hostess at a restaurant.
ASHLEY AMBROCIO: I try to get as many hours I can in work, you know, and get some extra money, you know, to buy groceries.
GARSD: It's not enough. She says she panics but never allows herself to break down at home.
A AMBROCIO: In the car - it's always in the car. And before going to work or after work, I just feel stressed 'cause of everything, and then I just start crying there.
GARSD: But she quickly has to pull herself together. As we talk, the phone rings. It's a video call from her dad at the detention center in central Florida.
(SOUNDBITE OF PHONE RINGING)
A AMBROCIO: Good timing. (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: He's lost eight pounds, he tells her. He's been sick. A bug is going around the detention center. He tells her that hasn't stopped him from preaching on the inside, but he wants to know about the family landscaping business. Have you spoken to the customers, Laura, Frank?
MAURILIO AMBROCIO: (Speaking Spanish).
A AMBROCIO: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: In the background of the video call, Ashley can see the blurred silhouettes of other detainees.
M AMBROCIO: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: Her dad tells her, "you have no idea how crowded it is here."
(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN NEWTON SONG, "AMAZING GRACE")
GARSD: By Sunday, the thunderstorm has rolled in. At church, on the piano near the altar is Maurilio's youngest son, 12-year-old Esdras. In a low voice, he asks me if I think his dad will be back soon.
ESDRAS AMBROCIO: I wouldn't know what to do without him. He's like a best friend to me. Yeah.
GARSD: Families file into the pews. Most have lived here for more than a decade, and almost all of their children are U.S. citizens. In Maurilio's absence, there is a guest pastor, Oscar Hernandez. Outside, the rain is really starting to come down. The air feels dense, and dewy, flushed faces look anxiously towards the pastor. He tells them he wrestled with what to say today.
OSCAR HERNANDEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: "God," he says, "God will often break your heart."
HERNANDEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: "But let me tell you something else," Pastor Hernandez says. "God never shows up late."
Jasmine Garsd, NPR News, Tampa, Florida. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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