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However, not long after the men were stopped, an ICE agent joined the scene to determine their citizenship status. Three of the men, including Ferrales, were detained and transported to the ICE field office in Phoenix. Ferrales was later taken to an ICE detention center in Florence and then to Eloy Detention Center<\/a>, an ICE facility run by the private prison group CoreCivic.<\/p>\n After he was detained, his mother said, Ferrales was briefly able to call her.<\/p>\n \u201cI went crazy. I didn\u2019t know what to say to him,\u201d she told Phoenix New Times. \u201cI just said, \u2018I love you,\u2019 and he told me, \u2018I love you back.\u2019 And that was it. It\u2019s been a nightmare since he\u2019s been taken. We need him home.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n ICE has not responded to questions about Ferrales\u2019 case.<\/p>\n Ferrales and his mother moved to the U.S. from Guadalajara, Mexico, when he was just 3 years old on a visitor\u2019s visa, which they overstayed. Ferrales spent much of his childhood in New Mexico. His mother, who said she has since obtained the authorization to work in the U.S., married in 2013 and had two other children, both of whom are American citizens. Ferrales\u2019 family moved to the Valley before he started at Cesar Chavez High School in Laveen, where he graduated in 2020.<\/p>\n After he graduated from high school, Ferrales began working as a landscaper to support his family, including a younger brother who is nonverbal with severe autism. Ferrales is also extremely close and supportive of his younger brother, his mother said, though the brother doesn\u2019t understand the situation Ferrales faces.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s always caring for his siblings and trying to help us with money and emotional support,\u201d his mother said. \u201cIt\u2019s really devastating that he\u2019s been taken while making some money to help his family.\u201d<\/p>\n In a bond request letter, Ferrales\u2019 younger sister called him a \u201cresponsible, hard-working and selfless man\u201d whom she\u2019s \u201calways looked up to.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWithout him, I wouldn\u2019t be the woman I am today,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n Applied for DACA status<\/p>\n Ferrales isn\u2019t documented and was working without a valid work permit. Nor is he protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program<\/a>, which shields people illegally brought to the U.S. as young children from deportation and allows them to legally work in the country. His mother said Ferrales applied for DACA status in January 2021, when the process was briefly reopened to first-time applicants, but his application is still processing. A lawyer for Ferrales did not respond to requests for comment on his case.<\/p>\n \u201cI know that it was wrong working in this country, and I know it was wrong to be here,\u201d his mother said. \u201cBut we only came for a chance to have a better life.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"the](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/eloy-detention-center.webp\")
Eloy Detention Center houses more than 15,000 detainees for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<\/p>\n