Dec. 19, 2025Updated Dec. 20, 2025, 11:08 a.m. MTSANTA EULALIA, Guatemala — Lucía Pedro Juan knew that she and her husband would not be returning to their southern Florida home.Her husband, Francisco Gaspar Cristóbal Andrés, stood across the room in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office. ICE agents separated them as they took their fingerprints, warning them not to talk or touch each other.But a tearful Pedro Juan ignored their orders."I broke away like that, but with such courage that I had the strength to go to him," Pedro Juan said. "And I hugged him, I tickled him on his ribs and I gave him a kiss on his cheek.""Cheer up, papi," she told her husband.He replied: "It's OK, mami, you too, cheer up."The guard who had separated them yelled, "I told you, you can't be together."That was the last day the husband and wife of 25 years were together.“I never saw him again, I never spoke to him or heard his voice again," Pedro Juan said. “It's something terrible they did to us. Yes, it's something terrible they did to us.”'A great pain for me'Pedro Juan was awakened by guards at 1 a.m., in late November at the Montana Avenue ICE processing center. She had been transferred there from Camp East Montana — the United States' largest immigration detention center — in El Paso days prior to her immigration hearing.She thought the guards were taking her to see her 48-year-old husband, who was in grave condition with liver and kidney complications at an El Paso hospital. She had repeatedly begged to see him after her daughter had told her he was critically ill.Instead, she was placed on a deportation flight from El Paso to Guatemala City on Nov 28.As she adjusted to returning to her highland Indigenous Mayan Q'anjob'al hometown, she learned her husband had died. His death on Dec. 3 has devastated Pedro Juan, their five children in the United States and her in-laws.Cristóbal Andrés is the first immigrant to die in custody at the sprawling Camp East Montana detention center — a soft-sided facility, hastily constructed to house immigrants rounded up by federal agents in President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign.He died a week after his birthday from liver and kidney failure, according to an ICE news release. Cristóbal Andrés had suffered from medical issues since the week of his detention, ICE officials said.His widow says that he was healthy when agents arrested them in Florida.Candles sat on an altar with photos of Cristóbal Andrés in the home he had built for his parents back in Guatemala, surrounded by vases of white daisies and calla lilies. A banner depicting him with his arms stretched out and Jesus at his shoulder hung on the wall."That is a great pain for me," Pedro Juan said. "I never imagined that was going to happen when they caught us."'Look, ma'am, sir, I have to take you in'Cristóbal Andrés and Pedro Juan started their Labor Day holiday with a quick run to the grocery store. Their 15-year-old daughter had the day off from school for the holiday."I said, 'Let's go get groceries,' and he said, 'OK, mami,'" Pedro Juan recalled. "It was around 8:40 a.m., when we were on the road heading to Homestead (Florida). And an ICE agent passed by us and caught up with us."Public records show that it was a Florida State Highway patrol officer that first pulled them over.He stopped them and requested both of their identification papers. Cristóbal Andrés presented his Florida driver's license and Pedro Juan told the officer she didn't have an ID, and instead presented her Guatemalan passport.The officer went to his car, but he returned and said, "look, ma'am, sir, I have to take you in. You're going to be detained for being undocumented."The officer explained he would be calling a tow truck, but she asked if it would be possible to drive the vehicle to a nearby location where a family friend could pick it up. The officer consulted an ICE agent, who granted the request with a stern warning."'If you try to run away, the officer behind you has the right to shoot you if you try to run away,' he told us," Pedro Juan said."I told him that we are not criminals," she said. "We are very hardworking, very determined people. We're not criminals."They were taken to Miramar, Florida, to be processed between 9:30 a.m., and 11 a.m. Agents took all their possessions, including the over $1,100 in cash Pedro Juan had with her, which was never returned.The couple had operated a nursery outside of Miami for the past decade.Pedro Juan began to cry as she was separated from her husband and worried about her daughter at home. She refused to allow her daughter to be placed in Child Protective Services, choosing to ask a family friend to take care of her.'It's there in Texas where we suffered'Pedro Juan was initially taken to the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, Florida, where she spent five days."I can't say there was any mistreatment there," she said. "I was there for five days, and I said, 'Only God is great, how am I going to get out of this?'"The following Sunday, she learned that her prayer would not be answered. She was placed on an ICE-chartered GlobalX plane and moved to the Southwest."They sent me to Texas," she explained. "It's there in Texas where we suffered."She was flown with around 36 other women to El Paso, all handcuffed. They were among the first women to arrive at Camp East Montana in mid-September.Nearly 3,000 men and women were held at the detention facility by Dec. 1, according to the office of U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso. Pedro Juan learned that her husband had been transferred to the same facility.Pedro Juan was held in the detention facility for nearly three months, despite the Trump administration's claim that the facility would hold detainees for only up to five days.She described living in cruel, unsanitary and inhumane conditions at Camp East Montana.The guards would mock them in English, describing them as animals."That's what happens when you are a donkey," Pedro Juan said the guards told them. "And that's what happens when you don't understand. You're crossing the border, people are still catching you here, but you keep crossing."The insults came from guards whose "parents are immigrants like us.""I don't know why you treat us like this," she asked.She recalled a sick woman being called out by guards."'You're going to die here because that's what you came here to do, to find your own death, that's why you crossed over,' they told her," Pedro Juan recalled.The women had to just sit there as guards berated them and sought to silence them."Shut up, you can't say anything because you're eating dog and pig food," the guards told them. "You're dumb, stupid, burros."On another occasion, women in her area were fainting because of hunger and thirst. They pleaded with guards for medicine, saying, "we are going to die, we are not going to endure it."She said she felt like she was going to faint too, and was given two Tylenol.Living in a detention center was physically and emotionally challenging.The food was inedible and was often spoiled. They would often run out of toilet paper by 8 a.m., and have to do without for the rest of the day. Pedro Juan and the other women suffered from depression."Our hair was falling out because of the stress," she explained.Pedro Juan, under duress, ultimately requested voluntary departure. She feared that if she remained in the lockup, she would die.Her story confirms the concerns raised by human rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the El Paso-based immigrant rights advocacy group Las Americas, and Escobar, about the conditions in the detention facility.Cristóbal Andrés' death highlights the concerns over the conditions at the site."This kind of detention is only going to accelerate that harm, and it is gravely unfortunate that this man has passed," Marisa Limón Garza, the director of Las Americas said during a news conference on Dec. 12. "I am confident that this will not be the last (case)."ICE: Detainee received 'high-quality care'ICE officials announced Cristóbal Andrés' death in their custody in a news statement on Dec 5. He had received medical attention from the moment he was detained, ICE officials said."From the moment they were notified of his health crisis, ICE medical staff ensured he had constant, high-quality care," officials said.He was treated for alcohol withdrawal days after his detention. Ninety-three days later, he died from liver and kidney failure, the ICE report states.He received medical attention at the El Paso facility on Sept. 27, Oct. 2, Oct. 9, Nov. 3 and Nov. 13 for a variety of ailments, including feeling lightheaded, flu-like symptoms, bleeding gums, sore throat and body aches. He was also treated for fever, productive cough with phlegm, jaundice, severe left lower extremity edema and hypertension, ICE said in the news release about his death.He was taken to the Hospitals of Providence East Campus on Nov. 16, where medical staff diagnosed him with hyponatremia. He was placed on a liver transplant list and placed on dialysis and palliative care towards the end of November, before he was pronounced dead in December.There was indisputable evidence that his life was in danger.A 911 call was made from the ICE detention facility on Nov. 16 for a "47-year-old suffering from low blood pressure and swelling to legs," according to call logs provided to the El Paso Times through a Freedom of Information request to the city of El Paso.The cause of death reported by ICE came as a shock to Pedro Juan. She said that her husband did drink from time to time on the weekends with his friends, but she refuted that he had any prior health conditions, including hypertension."About a year ago, we took him to the doctor," Pedro Juan said. "He never complained to us, even when he was sick, nothing."She insists that his health declined while in ICE custody, and became worse while detained at Camp East Montana.Living the American dreamCristóbal Andrés migrated to the United States in 2002 in search of work, like many other residents of his highland town. Pedro Juan and their four daughters joined him in 2007."I lived in the United States for 18 years," Pedro Juan said. "My husband went to work for a company in Miami, Florida when he arrived. I went with him after many hardships in life. (Guatemala) lacks money. I worked at a nursery company cultivating plants when I got there. I worked there for eight years. Then my husband and I started our own little business."Santa Eulalia sits atop the Cuchumatanes mountains in the western highlands of Guatemala, 215 miles up winding, unmaintained highways that look like a lunar landscape from Guatemala City, and just 30 miles from the border with Mexico. The remote town has long been plagued by extreme poverty and a lack of attention from the Guatemalan state.The two had built a life together in the United States and he built a home for his parents back in Guatemala. They were inseparable as they built a business and raised their family in Homestead, Florida.Over the years, their daughters married men from El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico. Their youngest daughter was born in 2010 in Florida, making her a U.S. citizen.Pedro Juan opened her business, Lucy Nursery, in Miami after years of working for a landowner there. The family invested in the business, buying tractors and other machinery.They attended two churches during their time in Florida: the Sacred Heart Catholic Church and another in Kendall, Florida. Pedro Juan said that her business provided poinsettias to the churches for Christmas celebrations in their community.Cristóbal Andrés had previously been detained by immigration officials in 2017. But the family hired a lawyer and had him released to pursue his immigration relief case, paying $15,000, Pedro Juan said."He was going to court, he was going to take care of everything that the requirements ask for, and then we were working, struggling with life with the family," Pedro Juan said. "And we never imagined that we were going to go through this situation that we are going through now."A mother's plea: 'I want to see my son'María Andrés had not seen her son, Cristóbal Andrés, in over 23 years, but she still remembers when her firstborn son left for the United States. The family had suffered from poverty, and he wanted to give them a better life."He said, 'I'm leaving, Mom,'" the 68-year-old said through a translator in the Q'anjob'al language. "'I'm going to look for opportunities and I want to help you.'"She had 15 children, but only seven survived. Of those, she has lost three in the last 10 years, including Cristóbal Andrés.Now all she wants is her son back."I want to see my son," Andrés said. "I want his body to be returned."The family has spoken with the Guatemalan government about repatriating his body for a proper Catholic burial in his hometown. But Pedro Juan said that there was no money.Pedro Juan said that an official from ICE said that if they didn't claim the body and pay, his body would be cremated against the wishes of the family. She said they wanted $6,000 to repatriate his body.At least 30 immigrants have died in detention in 2025. It is unclear how many of those bodies have been returned to their home countries.'May God give him peace'Before Pedro Juan was taken from the detention center, she begged ICE agents one last time to see her husband, a day before she was deported. Her daughter had told her in a recent call that he was "very sick."“(On Nov. 27), before he died, I begged, 'Please take me to see my husband. We haven’t seen him for two and a half months.'"As before, her cries for help were ignored."I told them, crying, 'Please, I want to talk to my husband. I am heartbroken,'" she said, breaking into tears again. "They said nothing. Not even 'Wait' or 'Let me check.' Nothing. 'No visits allowed.'"The widow described her husband as a man who deeply loved his family and who fought to provide for them. She explained, "I was very close to him. We were always together.""May God give him peace," Pedro Juan said. "He was very hardworking."Sadness, grief and blamePedro Juan still has nightmares of being detained. She said she has "lost everything.""It is something horrible that they did to us," she said.Her body shakes from the stress and trauma she went through, and she points to her thinning hairline as an example of the loss of hair.She is a stranger in her hometown. So much has changed in the community in the past 20 years, but the signs of their hard work are there: a house that her husband and she built for his parents with the money they earned in Florida.Pedro Juan is having to re-adjust to the colorful, woven clothing of Mayan communities, as she has not put on a traditional skirt in years. She still wears a silver cross she wore while being detained.She calls her suffering and her husband’s death a U.S. tragedy. She stresses h