{"id":825511,"date":"2026-05-27T12:34:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T12:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/825511\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T12:34:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T12:34:21","slug":"detained-and-facing-deportation-a-father-leaves-his-4-year-old-son-back-in-la","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/825511\/","title":{"rendered":"Detained and facing deportation: A father leaves his 4-year-old son back in LA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Detained and facing deportation: A father leaves his 4-year-old son back in LA<\/p>\n

Axel Pecero is one of tens of thousands of parents that have been detained under the current Trump administration.<\/p>\n

Last August, Axel Pecero was in Burbank for a conference. He traveled frequently for his work as a foster youth advocate.<\/p>\n

He was walking back to his hotel from a concert when Burbank Police stopped him and ran his ID.<\/p>\n

A warrant he had for driving with a suspended license from several years ago popped up. It listed a $10 bail amount.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey took me to the station because of that ten-dollar warrant,\u201d Pecero said.<\/p>\n

Raising kids?<\/p>\n

Our Early Childhood newsletter, focused on raising kids ages 0-5, is your place to get reads and resources on the topics most important to your family. <\/p>\n

Burbank police released him hours later with a citation to appear in court later that month, a department spokesperson said. Pecero never made it \u2014 when he exited the jail, he said, immigration agents were waiting for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as I opened the door, Department of Homeland Security is literally right at the door. It was three of them. They were, like, blocking the entrance completely,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

They arrested him, took him to the federal building in Los Angeles, and then to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino County. Pecero began pursuing legal options to be released.<\/p>\n

His case had urgency: Pecero has a 4-year-old \u2014 Ajay, short for Axel Junior.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could be deported. But I’m fighting my case,\u201d he told LAist from Adelanto. \u201cI have a son here that I’m fighting to stay with and be able to stay to help and support and raise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pecero is one of tens of thousands of parents that have been detained under the current Trump administration. A new analysis <\/a>by the Brookings Institution estimates that more than 200,000 children in the U.S. have been separated through detention under President Trump.<\/p>\n

Pecero shares custody of Ajay with the boy\u2019s mom. Ajay would frequently stay over with Pecero in his apartment near downtown L.A. \u2014 they\u2019d go out to the park, or to eat, or play sports. They\u2019d also hang out with Pecero\u2019s younger brother, Isaac, who lived with Pecero.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Axel said Ajay would frequently hang out at his house near downtown L.A. <\/p>\n

Isaac Pecero said he was stunned when he had found out his brother had been detained.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow would they try to deport him if he’s been here way before he could, before he even remembered coming to this country? I found it unbelievable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Isaac Pecero said after his brother was detained at Adelanto, he tried to make up for his older brother\u2019s absence by taking Ajay on outings to the park and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we were missing something and that was my brother. It was sad when I had to tell [Ajay] like, \u2019Oh, I’m sorry, you can’t see your dad.\u2019 I didn’t even know what to tell him when he was asking me where his dad was. I didn\u2019t know what to say,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was just heartbreaking because, you know, my nephew, me and my brother \u2014 we were the trio. Wherever we were at or whatever we were doing, as long as we were together, it was always fun, you know? We were the family.\u201d<\/p>\n

A former foster youth<\/p>\n

Axel Pecero said he was brought to the U.S. from Mexico by his grandmother when he was three years old, and grew up around Los Angeles and the South Bay with various relatives. As a teen, he lived with his aunt. At 18, he left to live on his own.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aIt was rough. Six months later I had spent through all of my savings and then I was broke, and then couldn’t pay for my apartment no more, so I ended up homeless,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said he was arrested for trespassing; when it was time to renew his DACA status in 2019, he was denied, according to his immigration attorney.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Axel (right) with California state senator Caroline Menjivar. He said he wanted to work in policy. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was young, I was dumb, I was just trying to survive out here by myself,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a journey trying to get all my life in order.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for DHS said Pecero has pending charges including for drug possession, larceny and burglary. LAist could not locate court records in Los Angeles related to the burglary charge (court records show a drug possession charge was dismissed in 2020; misdemeanor charges related to a joyriding case were dismissed in January). When asked for more details, the DHS spokesperson said they didn\u2019t have information about what jurisdiction the burglary charge was in. <\/p>\n

Like the majority of people detained by ICE<\/a>, Pecero has not been convicted of a crime.<\/p>\n

Axel Pecero said his life changed after his son was born. He started attending Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, where a program for former foster youth connected him to resources and housing support. He joined a network of foster youth advocates, landing work with California Youth Connection and other organizations. Pecero traveled around the state and to Washington D.C. to testify on behalf of kids who\u2019ve been in the foster care system.<\/p>\n

He said at the time he was detained, he wanted to get his bachelor\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was doing policy work and I wanted to do policy work \u2014 that was the plan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Axel, who was a delegate with the National Foster Youth Institute, would travel across the state and to D.C., to advocate for foster youth. <\/p>\n

Few legal options<\/p>\n

In February, an immigration judge denied Axel Pecero\u2019s bond to be released, citing him as a flight risk, according to his attorney. After seven months in detention, Pecero faced a choice: Leave the country and have a chance to come back to see his son in a few years. Or face deportation, and get barred from returning to the United States for 10 or 20 years, he said, even to visit.<\/p>\n

By March, \u201c\u200alooking at at my circumstances, I opted for the voluntary departure,\u201d Axel said. A judge granted it.<\/p>\n

A week later, DHS put him on a bus to Tijuana, then he got a flight to Cancun, where his mother lives. He hadn\u2019t seen her for 18 years.<\/p>\n

A report by the Vera Institute<\/a> found that voluntary departures among people who are detained have increased more than 10-fold under the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

Before he left the U.S., Pecero saw his son Ajay one last time in an Adelanto visiting room.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as he saw me, he was crying. He ran into my arms. I picked him up, and he was crying, and I was crying too, you know? And he just said, \u2018Dada,\u2019 and he just came and he ran up to me, and I told him I missed him. He said he missed me, too. And I was like, “I love you, son\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Starting over in Mexico\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pecero is still getting used to his new surroundings in Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aIt’s not like anything that I’m used to in the United States. So that\u2019s a big change for me that I have to kind of get used to,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m leaving everything, my life, everything I had went to school for. My son, my friends, my family that I had out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019s been able to talk with Ajay more frequently now on Facetime, but it\u2019s hard to explain where he is or what will happen next.<\/p>\n

\u200a\u201dHe was telling me, like, \u2018Dada, come home.\u2019 And I was like, I was like, \u2018I can’t, son. Like, I’m in Mexico.\u2019 And he’s like, \u2018Why?\u2019 And I’m like, \u2018It’s because, like, I’m too far. I’m really far away.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, Pecero is searching for a job in the tourism industry, and he\u2019s not sure if he\u2019ll apply to school. He said he feels like he\u2019s torn on moving ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s complicated because I\u2019m trying to be present in where I\u2019m at, but at the same time it\u2019s hard because I\u2019m like, OK, I don\u2019t really know how long I want to be here just because I\u2019m thinking of Ajay,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He fears making roots too deep in his new home, because it might create more distance between him and his son.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s frightening because these are the years that he needs me the most,\u201d he said. \u201cNot being able to be there stresses me out because I can\u2019t raise him how I would want to raise him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Detained and facing deportation: A father leaves his 4-year-old son back in LA Axel Pecero is one of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":825512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,20523,2961,224,5337,124290,4352],"class_list":["post-825511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-self-deportation","tag-trump-administration"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116646568971095945","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}