Hector David Azana Vega followed the rules. Apparently that isn’t good enough in Donald Trump’s America.
Sonoma County resident Hector David Azana Vega followed the rules. The 52-year-old Peruvian asylum-seeker held a valid work permit, paid his taxes, maintained health insurance and had no criminal record. That wasn’t good enough for the Trump administration.
During a routine check-in at an immigration office in July, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Vega and now threaten to deport him. Vega is another victim of a broken immigration and asylum system that needs common sense reform.
ICE is reportedly holding Vega in a detention center in Arizona. He is hundreds of miles from his fiancee, his friends and his support network.
If someone who did everything by the book can be arrested and deported, it sends a chilling message to the entire immigrant community. Even those who committed no crime live in fear that masked federal agents could throw them into a van and drive them away at any time.
This harsh enforcement strategy is disruptive not just for families but also for businesses in the North Bay and beyond. The agricultural, hospitality and construction industries rely on immigrant workforces. They now struggle to find workers, and the entire regional economy suffers. In some cases, farmers have left food to rot in fields.
During his presidential campaign last year, Donald Trump talked about targeting immigrants with criminal records. If his administration had done so, he might have broad public support. Instead, 71% of detainees have no criminal record. ICE is sweeping up the sorts of immigrants that most Americans want to keep: longtime residents with jobs, families and community ties. Vega is one of them.
The nation needs comprehensive immigration reform that secures the border and reforms asylum processing but also opens more pathways to legal entry and creates options for permanent legal status.
In 2024, a bipartisan Senate package proposed the most significant immigration reforms in three decades. It combined enhanced border security with updated asylum processing. Republican leaders in Congress supported the changes, some of which could have affected Vega’s case.
Trump opposed those reforms, not because they were bad policy but because he didn’t want the issue taken off the table during the campaign. To their great shame, congressional Republicans obeyed.
The recently introduced Dignity Act (H.R. 4393), which has bipartisan support in the House of Representatives, offers them a second chance. It would provide a path to permanent legal status — although not citizenship — for many undocumented immigrants who arrived prior to 2021, something many Democrats support.
The legislation also would overhaul the asylum system, mandate national E-Verify by employers and create new criminal penalties for some immigration violations, all things that Republicans support. Critically, fees paid by participants would fund it all, not taxpayers.
The Dignity Act might not be the comprehensive compromise that the nation needs, but it would take huge steps to address an immigration crisis that entangles people like Vega. With Trump now in the White House and ever eager to take credit for a successful bill, maybe it has a chance of moving the United States closer to overdue immigration reform.
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