AMHERST, Ohio (WOIO) - María Chavira is still beside herself nearly a month after her husband, Ruben Palafox-Gonzalez, was detained by ICE.“They don’t care,” she said Monday in an interview with 19 News. “They don’t have hearts.”Palafox was detained by ICE agents on October 7th near the corner of North Ridge Road and Dute Avenue in Lorain.The Amherst resident owns a Lorain masonry business; he’s held a work permit since 2023 and currently applying for a U visa for victims of crime.Palafox, alongside his wife and 3-year-old daughter, Hilary, were driving a car when deputies pulled them over.“The speed limit was 50 and he was going 40,” Chavira explained, “that’s why they pulled him over...asked for his driver’s license, asked for his ID, and said ‘I’ll be back.’ After that, that’s when ICE showed up.”Chavira explains the immigration agents told Palafox to exit the vehicle. As tensions rose, she recalled what another agent said.“Get out of here you effing illegal, you don’t deserve to be here, this is my country, get out of my country,” he said.Palafox is currently held at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Facility in Youngstown. According to Chavira’s lawyers, Palafox remains held due to an issue entering the country in 2013, when he was under 18 years old.Major AJ Torres with the Lorain County Sheriff’s office says they don’t have an active agreement with ICE, but the federal agency has the ability to listen in to deputies’ radio calls.“They usually have paperwork, saying ‘we’re looking for this person,’” he said. “They have probably cause to detain this person, then they go with ICE.”19 News reached out to the Detroit ICE office, which oversees Ohio, seeking more information on Palafox’s possible appearance in immigration court. 19 News has yet to receive a response.In the meantime, Chavira and her family are forced to wait and contemplate the possibility of remaining apart.“My kids are really hurt. Me myself and my husband, too. It’s not fair,” she said.Copyright 2025 WOIO. All rights reserved.