Ignacio Carrizalez is a builder.

He builds houses for a living and hard work allowed him to build a life for himself and his family: his wife, Amanda Smail-Carrizalez, and their daughter, 6-year-old Dani.

He was near the finish line with the immigration process — and then COVID-19 interrupted everything. The family has waited years for his permanent residency hearing. Now, that hard work and waiting may have been wasted.

With the end game in sight, Ignacio missed his long-awaited residency hearing June 1 while in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. He was detained April 28 during a routine traffic stop.

Despite documentation dating back over a decade — including international background checks, past finger prints, the I-130 and I-797 forms with approvals from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services — the family has been given a choice between self-deporting by July 20 or seeing Ignacio deported by authorities. The family plans to self-deport.

Ignacio comes from a religious family. He has sent money home to his mother whenever he could. Previously, Ignacio’s parents visited from Mexico every six months. They often drove to Windsor, Ohio, to see the world’s largest rosary and the nearly 50-foot tall statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

He’s also in a union.

“We’re up to date on our union dues. We’ve been up to date on everything, we’ve always been,” Amanda said.

“It seems like they’ve been told to deport everybody and I don’t understand why,” Amanda said June 22, trying to hold back tears in front of Dani. “My husband has paid taxes. We’ve done things the right way.”

Before a seemingly routine police stop flipped the Carrizalez family’s lives upside down, the family considered themselves typical, hardworking residents of Butler.

Ignacio, originally from the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico, came to America 22 years ago.

The Carrizalez family claims he has been going through the process of trying to become a citizen since 2011, the year before they got married.

His work title is construction carpenter, but his wife says he is more of an “all in one guy.” He knows how to do electrical work, water, roofing — all the parts of a home.

Working for Genesis Concrete Structures, based out of Pittsburgh, he has built homes and other buildings, both nearby and in towns like State College. One summer, he helped the company build a school in Louisiana, Amanda said.

He even planned to fix Skate Castle’s roof this summer, helping out a place where his daughter and her friends like to go.

When Ignacio was pulled over by an Evans City police officer on April 28 “on suspicion of an expired registration,” he called Amanda and she listened to the incident by phone. There was nothing abnormal about the exchange between Ignacio and the police officer, she said.

It was after that when federal agents sitting across the parking lot approached him, without a warrant and without identifying themselves.

“That’s when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement surrounded him,” Amanda recalled.

Amanda said she heard someone say, “Somebody’s not coming to help you, buddy,” over the phone, as agents ripped him from his car and took him away.

After the call ended and Ignacio was taken, Amanda immediately called her best friend in a frenzy, trying to figure out what to do. She picked up her friend and got Dani from school, and they all went to the Evans City Police Department.

It was there that, from several feet away, she says she heard a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer say through the phone of an Evans City officer, “I do not want to speak to her. I do not want to know. Give her the number that rings all day.”

They then went to the short-term holding center at ICE’s field office on Pittsburgh’s South Side, showing legal immigration documentation and searching for answers. Amanda was told a hearing was already scheduled and an order to deport had been put in that day. She was not given a reason for the deportation order.

Ignacio had already been taken to Moshannon Valley Processing Center, a detention facility with a reputation for poor treatment of detainees.

“He’s just trying to stay strong. He’s so confused,” Amanda said of Ignacio. “He doesn’t understand what’s happening. He feels like he’s being punished. But he’s a good guy. He doesn’t get it either.”

Since then, Amanda has struggled trying to navigate immigration law.

Lawyers have sent letters to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stating he is in the process of obtaining citizenship and is currently documented. Still, Ignacio missed his permanent residency hearing.

“They (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) were aware of the hearing. I’ve emailed them. I’ve been calling them,” Amanda said. “They knew all about it.”

The judge assigned to oversee Ignacio’s case, Tamar Wilson, is a federal immigration judge based out of Elizabeth, New Jersey. According to TRAC Immigration, an immigration database, she has a denial rate for release of detained immigrants of roughly 93%.

Amanda recorded the hearings, conducted over Zoom, on her phone — the recordings show Ignacio by himself at Moshannon tuned in on a tablet. At the most recent hearing on Thursday, June 18, Wilson told Ignacio’s lawyer they had not submitted enough evidence to support what was being claimed.

His options: self-deport or be deported.

“Like I said, it seems like they’ve been told to deport everybody. Ignacio did not do anything wrong,” Amanda said.

A search of the Pennsylvania Unified Judicial System found no active criminal cases against Ignacio at the state level as of Monday, June 22.

A search of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s “Immigration and Customs Enforcement Case” search portal using the number Amanda provided the Eagle for Ignacio’s file conducted the same day also produced no results.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which handles case records for immigration, has a backlog of more than 10 million cases, according to the nonprofit American Immigration Council.

On June 22, a rainy Monday afternoon, Dani was busy running around the house, whispering questions to Amanda while she talked to reporters. Amanda took a break to heat up lunch for Dani, like any other ordinary day.

While they have faced an onslaught of negativity on social media, the family has also received support from neighbors and perishable foods from people like the volunteers of Casa San Jose, a Pittsburgh-based Latino support group.

Recently, Amanda has driven out to sites where Ignacio has worked to collect his tools. It was when she was emptying out his work van that she said everything truly hit her.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Amanda said, thinking about Dani and trying to hide her tears. “I try to let her play with the neighbor kids as much as I can, just to keep her mind occupied. I don’t want her to see me crying.”

The family has much to figure out. They have to figure out what to bring with them when they leave for Tamaulipas, where Ignacio’s family still is. They own five peacocks that were originally gifted from a family friend — five adults, and one with four eggs. They are looking for somewhere to donate the birds.

“We’re clueless as to how this goes,” Amanda said. “I’ve never done this before. I don’t know where to start. What are you supposed to do? It’s a lot.”

Amanda said the office of Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16, reached out to ask about the status of the case. She said Kelly’s office said that it “sent an email to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” receiving an acknowledgment and had not heard back from the agency.

The Eagle previously reached out to Kelly’s office, who said on June 18 it was aware of the case and was unable to provide additional information at the time.

She also said she reached out to Reps. Summer Lee, D-12th, and Chris Deluzio, D-17th, both Western Pennsylvania representatives that have visited Moshannon, and has not heard anything yet.

Since Amanda shared her family’s struggles at the June 17 Butler County Commissioners’ meeting, she said Commissioner Kevin Boozel had reached out and said he was in contact with Sen. John Fetterman’s office.

“I have been emailing people. I’ll email U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement myself. Since no one is going to do anything, I will. And they won’t answer me back,” Amanda said.

Uncertain of what lies ahead, Amanda is most focused on her child’s well-being. Butler is where they call home. And while Mexico’s is Ignacio’s homeland, being forced to go to a distant land with its share of crime and violence is not what Amanda wants for her daughter.

“It’s not me. I’m scared for her,” Amanda said. “I’m not worried about myself. I don’t want somebody to hurt her.”

“And I feel Butler has a responsibility to protect us. I am a U.S. citizen. So is (Dani). I’m begging for help.”

Amanda hopes to start the process of coming back to America once in Mexico, but is unsure of what that process looks like or if they will be allowed.

“His mom, she wanted to come over after he was detained. I had to tell her, ‘no,’” Amanda said. “She’d say, ‘I have to come over. Mija, you’re by yourself.’ And I (said I) could not keep your son safe. I can’t keep you safe either.”

“I always wanted to go visit them. I just didn’t want to be forced,” Amanda said. “I don’t want to uproot everything we’ve worked so hard for.”