Gabby and Sergio with their three children (from left to right): Sienna, Charlee, and Colter.
Narrated by Sam Shick
Sergio Cerdio Gomez is currently being held in Tacoma, Washington, by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWIPC). He was taken into custody in late April by ICE during what Sergio and his wife Gabrielly (Gabby) believed was an interview for Sergio’s citizenship, which they had been waiting on for nearly three years.
Gabby Cerdio said in a public social media post on April 28 that their immigration lawyer was going to “push for a court hearing.” Cerdio is hoping that will happen soon, so that they can work on a bond hearing to get Sergio out of the ICE facility and continue to work on his immigration status.
Tumbleweird interviewed Gabby via phone on May 2 about what is happening with Sergio and how she is coping without him.
Gabby and Sergio are owners of a food truck, Hibachi Explosion. They are also the parents of three kids — a teenager who’s soon to be graduating high school, a five year old, and a ten month old.
Gabby said that she and Sergio met when they both worked in a restaurant together in 2015. They were just friends then, but she said that Sergio was flirty, and she eventually developed feelings for him. After that, Gabby said, they were inseparable.
Sergio has been living in the U.S. since he was a teenager. He was brought here from Mexico by his uncle. Sergio is very smart, Gabby explained, but never had a chance to get an education. “Everything he knows is self-taught. His English, his writing … he got here, and he started working.”
He worked in a few different states before settling in Washington in about 2013. Sergio has always worked, Gabby explained, and he’s never had fake papers. She said he’s never, “used a fake social [security number]; he’s never lived off the state … no food stamps.”
Sergio and Gabby legally own their house and their business. Sergio has never committed a crime. And he’s been working on getting his immigration straightened out for years. In fact, they started the process way back in 2015.
Sergio originally applied for asylum in the U.S. because the area in Mexico he was from was a dangerous place with lots of drugs and cartel activity.
Then Sergio’s daughter from a previous marriage, Sienna, came to live with them when she was just seven years old. The expense of hiring a lawyer, completing all of the necessary paperwork, and the adjustment of having a child move in made it impossible to jump through all of the hoops for Sergio’s case. Gabby said, “We had to get [Sienna] into school. We were working full time… It’s sad to say, but [the asylum case] just wasn’t a top priority for us.” Sergio’s asylum case was closed.
In 2020, Gabby and Sergio tried to restart the asylum process, but they found out in order for their case to move forward, Sergio would have to surrender himself to ICE and be taken into custody. They had just had their son. Gabby said that with a teenager and a newborn, she needed Sergio. It just wasn’t an option for Sergio to surrender himself. “So we brushed it off to the side.”
Another immigration path Sergio could have taken was to self-surrender and go back to Mexico for a specific length of time, and check in every year to the consulate, Gabby explained. But, she said, it could be five to ten years before Sergio would be able to come back legally.
That wasn’t a workable solution. “We had two kids at that time, and we were about to open our business,” said Gabby.
Gabby and Sergio got married in 2022 and opened their food truck, Hibachi Explosion (which is legally owned by both of them), in 2023.
Then, they saved up money until they were finally able to dedicate time and resources to get Sergio’s immigration in order. They hired an immigration attorney and got all their documentation in order (birth certificates, marriage certificate, etc.).
The immigration attorney helped them start a petition, an I-130 petition through marriage, and told them the process could take 12 to 18 months. They were also told that, since they were going through all the proper legal steps to citizenship, Sergio was “untouchable” while everything was in process.
So, they waited. And waited. And waited.
Before they knew it, a few years had gone by. Then, finally, in April, they got news about Sergio’s case — a notice for a citizenship interview in Yakima.
They contacted their immigration attorney right away (the one who had started their petition). Gabby said that the attorney told them it was strange to get an interview request from ICE for their type of petition; “it’s usually just a quick APPROVE or DENY.”
The attorney’s words made Sergio and Gabby hesitant, she said. But they were told that if they didn’t show up, their petition would be denied automatically. They had already been waiting for almost three years.
They also didn’t want to take the chance that ICE agents would show up at their front door with a warrant if they didn’t appear as ordered. Gabby said, “We can’t [have] our kids seeing ICE officers coming to our house and taking their dad; or what if he’s picking the kids up from school?” They decided that would be too traumatic for their kids. They had to go to the interview.
“It was very nerve wracking,” said Gabby. “We drove around the building a couple of times.” To make matters worse, their lawyer was unable to attend the meeting, and they had to go alone. “We were the only people in the lobby; probably the only people in the building, besides security and one office person.”
They waited anxiously until Sergio’s name was called. Gabby said she tried to go with him; she told them she had all of the documents. But the agents refused to let her accompany Sergio, and they didn’t want to see any documents. Gabby said they only wanted Sergio and his ID.
Soon afterward, another ICE agent approached Gabby, and told her that they had a warrant for Sergio’s arrest, and they were taking him into custody. ICE never showed Gabby or Sergio this warrant.
Gabby has since hired a new lawyer. She said she found out that there was never an arrest warrant for Sergio. She was told that the “warrant” could possibly have referred to an administrative warrant, not an actual warrant — a document that is signed by a judge.
According to the Community Raid Flyer provided by the Immigrant Defense Project (IDP), people being arrested by ICE don’t have to provide information to ICE agents unless they have a warrant signed by a judge.
The IDP website also has information about ICE Ruses like the one used to deceive Gabby and Sergio. From the Immigrant Defense Project website:
When Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents go to homes and the community to arrest non-citizens, it’s common for them to lie about who they are and what they want from the individuals they encounter. The lies are called “ruses.”
Ruses are an officially-sanctioned ICE policy, taught to new agents at the ICE Training Academy, and are subject to almost no restrictions. The Immigrant Defense Project’s lawsuit, Immigrant Defense Project, et al. v. ICE, et al., has made internal ICE training documents and memos, including those on ruses, publicly available. From the results of this Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, IDP produced the Defend Against ICE Raids and Community Arrests Toolkit, available in English and Spanish.
Since Sergio was detained, Gabby has not been allowed to see him. She is only able to send messages and occasionally talk on the phone. She said he has been staying strong for her. “He wants to come home. He misses the kids.”
Their new lawyer is winning a lot of their cases, Gabby said. But she had to pay $20,000 up front, and that doesn’t include the cost of getting Sergio out of detainment. “If he can [get] a bond hearing, it’s no guarantee that he will even get a bond,” Gabby said. “They may want to keep him in custody until his court hearing is over.” And, of course, there are no guarantees they will win their case. All of this is on top of the over $15,000 they had already spent trying to get Sergio his immigration petition before the ICE ruse happened.
Now that Sergio is in detention, Gabby is the sole parent at home. She also has to keep the food truck running without Sergio, which has been incredibly difficult.
Thankfully, Gabby has help running the food truck from her employees. It is their main source of income, so they have to make it work. One employee, Sylvia, has even moved in with Gabby to help with the kids and with running the food truck.
Gabby says that her extended family, who has their own uniquely American immigration story, has been providing a lot of emotional support. Friends of the family have started a fundraiser to help with legal expenses, and the food truck has sold out several times due to the amount of support from members of the community buying meals there to help the family.
Gabby’s GoFundMe can be found at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/gabbys-fight-reunite-with-sergio
Apple Valley News reported that the hearing didn’t go as well as they had hoped, but Gabby still has faith that Sergio will get to come home to his wife and kids after his final hearing on June 13. Gabby said that she is glad the children were able to see Sergio at the hearing. It was the first time they had gotten to see their father since he was taken in April.
A lifelong resident of Eastern Washington, Dori enjoys the outdoors, her family, and making good trouble. She has worked for many years in broadcasting and reporting and believes in the value of the 4th estate. She is a true community advocate that loves Washington.
