Apart from an indefinable building in downtown Manhattan, Ambar pleaded to the authorities of God and immigration that her husband Jaen did not take out the doors of Elk Street in the handcuffs.
“This is the only thing I ask God and them, to have mercy on his family. I have no one else. I am alone with my daughter, I do not want to be separated from him,” said Ambar to ABC News with tears immersing herself while his daughter Aranza was kept distracted on an iPad.
But his prayers have not received an answer. That afternoon, Jaen and two other men were brought outside by hidden in civilian clothes and quickly introduced unmarked vehicles, with moaning Ambar and making a last plea. Aranza, 12, tried to pass the agents to prevent them from leading him to vehicles, tears flowing on his face.
ABC News observed the emotional moments while an ambar uncontrolledly distraught has thrown itself on the ground by pleading so that her husband was released.
A woman cries while she waits for her husband at an intensive supervision program office on June 4, 2025 in New York.
Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images
Masked individuals did not answer several questions asked by ABC News concerning which agency they belonged, why they covered their faces and which authority was invoked to hold men. But Jaen’s lawyer, Margaret Cargioli, says that his detention follows an increasing scheme of migrants held during checks with the Ministry of Internal Security and to be quickly expelled under accelerated withdrawal.
DHS did not immediately respond to the request for comments from ABC News.
In 2023, ABC News did an interview with the Colombian-Venezuel family about their reunion in tears after being separated on the border by the American authorities in Texas. Jaen, Ambar and Aranza have made the dangerous trip from Colombia in the hope of seeking asylum in the United States
“”[It was] Trauma, “said Jaen during the interview.” It was a risky decision. We knew we had someone to take care of our daughter. As a family, we estimated that we had no other option. “”
Once they have reached the border, the family said they were separated and was placed in different types of elimination procedures. Ambar and his daughter said they were finally released and placed on a bus for Los Angeles, funded by the Lone Star operation of the Governor of Texas Greg Abbott.
A woman cries after her husband was held by the escort of federal agents after leaving an intensive office of the supervision apparently on June 4, 2025 program in New York.
Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images
Jaen received a referral order by virtue of the accelerated referral process, but Cargioli and other lawyers for the immigrant Defenders Law Center managed to successfully challenge the separation and he was released in humanitarian release for a year.
Cargioli says that Jaen has petitioned for asylum, a prosecutor’s renewal and a removal stay, but all are pending.
Jaen was to record a recording on June 16 as part of the Supervision Intensity Program (ISAP) – an alternative to the detention program led by ICE – but was invited to come on June 3 or 4, Ambar told ABC News.
This has raised major red flags for his legal team, which monitored growing incidents of the Trump administration holding migrants inside the country and placed them on “accelerated dismissal”. The process allows the government to withdraw migrants rationalized without requiring them, in some cases, to appear before a judge.
Under the Biden administration, the process applied to migrants who had entered the United States within 14 days and less than 100 miles from the border. As part of the Trump administration, it was extended to apply to migrants anywhere inside that have arrived in the two years.
Jaen and his family entered the United States on June 4, 2023, exactly two years before his last detention, which led Cargioli to fear that he was placed in accelerated move. Although he asked the ISAP officers where he was going to be detained, and if it was by the accelerated withdrawal, the lawyer says that she did not receive an answer.
A child tries to kiss his father while he is escorted by federal agents with other prisoners at vehicles after leaving an intensive office of the supervision program on June 4, 2025 in New York.
Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images
Jaen spoke with Ambar on the phone after his detention and said that he did not know where he was, but that he was detained in an establishment near the place where he was detained, Ambar said.
Ambar and Aranza have an asylum hearing scheduled for June 2028. Cargioli thinks that Jaen would be with his family if they had not been separated on the border.
Federal agents escort prisoners to vehicles after leaving an intensive office of the supervision appearance program on June 4, 2025 in New York.
Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images
“If he had not been separated from his family at this stage and put into accelerated moving, he would have his immigration file in New York, before an immigration court with them, with both,” she told ABC News.
The ISAP recordings are carried out through a government entrepreneur called BI incorporated, according to DHS reports. Jaen regularly records the Elk Street office since its initial detention, Ambar said.
Families with relatives who check are outside the establishment hoping that they will not be held. On Wednesday, ABC News saw a woman cry with joy when a parent and her baby left without handcuffs in sight. Another woman was shocked to see her mother being quickly taken into one of the vehicles waiting outside the building.
“Mom what happened, what is it,” asked the woman. Masked agents did not answer his repeated questions about the reasons why his mother was detained.
“I don’t understand,” cried the woman. “She did nothing. She has a work card.”
“Who are we talking about … what’s going on,” she asked when the agents closed the door of the car and left with her mother.
