Life since being deported has been “really hard,” said Angel Acosta Ramirez, 43. His family is now struggling to make enough money to survive. In 2022, he fled Venezuela and came to the U.S. with his parents, wife and son, who was then a baby.

Arrest reports show that Christian County Sheriff Brad Cole stopped Acosta Ramirez for allegedly speeding on the highway in January 2026. Although Acosta Ramirez believed he had every right to be in the U.S., that traffic stop led to jail time and deportation.

As the Daily Citizen continues to cover immigration issues and report on the Greene County Jail’s contract that leads to hundreds of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees being held at the facility daily, Acosta Ramirez and Arrioja Romero (once inmates in the jail) agreed to share their story over several interviews this year to give the community a better understanding of the personal impact of changes at the federal and local level.

The Daily Citizen first got in touch with Acosta Ramirez’s wife Maria Fernanda Arrioja Romero, 30, during her months-long detention in the Greene County Jail. Through conversations with interpreters, the family members told a reporter about their journey to the U.S. and experience being deported.

The Daily Citizen also reached out to Cole, who explained how his office collaborates with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement during some traffic stops, and worked to obtain a paper trail from the federal government showing when and how Acosta Ramirez’s family entered the U.S.

🔗 Read the full story reported by Zoe McIntyre at the link in our bio.