Family Separation 2.0: An Update

Summary

The Daily – “Family Separation 2.0: An Update”

Date: December 30, 2025
Host: Michael Barbaro
Reported by: Jessica Chung

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Overview

This episode of The Daily revisits the harrowing story of Ayla Gomez and her father Fabricio, an undocumented immigrant from Brazil who, after years in the US with no criminal record, was detained and deported amid the Trump administration's intensified immigration crackdown. Through Jessica Chung’s reporting and intimate interviews with Ayla, the episode explores the personal fallout of family separation policies, the complexity of undocumented life in America, and the enduring impact of forced displacement—both on those expelled and the family left behind.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

Setting the Stage: Family Under Threat

• [01:07] Ayla, a college student in Massachusetts, recounts the day her father was detained by ICE:

  “It's like when you hear somebody, they're trying not to cry, but like they're really, like, holding it in…This is a hard working man, no criminal record, like you guys just took him.” — Ayla Gomez

• [02:51 – 04:25] Family history: Fabricio came from Brazil in 2001 to escape violence and build a better life. He built a successful construction company and always encouraged his children to pursue their passions.

• [05:04 – 05:38] Ayla recalls her deep connection to her father, sharing a love for building, and how it inspired her academic and professional choices.

Life Interrupted: Detainment and Shock

• [07:09] Fabricio had a pending visa application and for 12 years faithfully checked in with ICE. In February, he was detained at one such routine check-in.

• [07:58] The shock and trauma of unexpected, bureaucratic separation:

  “I felt like my heart just left my chest...my whole heart got ripped out of my chest because I never got to really say a proper goodbye.” — Ayla Gomez

Adapting to Forced Separation

• [10:14] Fabricio is moved to a correctional facility. Ayla describes her father’s resilience—leading a Bible study and cleaning in detention for extra privileges.

• [11:43] Ayla and Fabricio adapt through daily phone calls, striving to maintain a semblance of normalcy:

  “We open every conversation like he was here with us...Being said, ‘Hi, dad, how are you? I missed you.’” — Ayla Gomez

• [12:21] – [13:10] ICE orders Fabricio’s removal and transfers him to a far harsher detention center in Louisiana, previously investigated for abuse. Ayla notices her father’s optimistic facade begin to crack:

  “I don't want to say he's in full panic, but he's really feeling it.” — Ayla Gomez

The Impact of Deportation

• [13:25] – [13:54] Ayla's mounting anxiety and refusal to abandon her life and ambitions in the US:

  “My parents have worked way too damn hard, too many years of their damn life to come here. I will be continuing college and if anything, I will be continuing their success times that by 100.” — Ayla Gomez

Humanizing the Undocumented Experience

• [14:32] – [14:56] Ayla’s challenge to listeners who support mass deportation:

  “If you're okay with separating families because they're just simply immigrants, that's a battle you're dealing within yourself...try to picture one of their daughters sitting here and having to talk about one of their parents like this.” — Ayla Gomez

Dreams on Hold

• [15:43] The arrested dream of a family business and bright future:

  “As of right now, there's, like, no dream, no goal. It's just like, okay, well, my dream is to kind of just be able to push through this.” — Ayla Gomez

• [15:59 – 16:39] Ayla’s recurring hope and vision for reuniting with her father:

  “That's exactly how I see it. Just feels like it's going to happen. And it's all I think about. That's all I can envision, like, over and over again, every single day that I wake up...” — Ayla Gomez

The Aftermath: Reunification Abroad

• [17:14 – 17:44] Ayla never receives her dream call. Instead, her father is deported, and she travels alone to meet him in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

• [19:10 – 19:45] Ayla describes the surreal, bittersweet reunion at the airport:

  “I literally see him like standing in front of the door. I gave him a big hug. Like I missed him so much. It was so shocking. It's just like...I'm so happy to see him but I'm in shock. I'm like, what are we doing here? I guess this is it. Like this is how things are for now.” — Ayla Gomez

Displacement and Legacy

• [19:50 – 21:32] Ayla expresses profound dislocation, seeing her father with his extended family for the first time while feeling intensely out of place in Brazil:

  “I don't belong here...this is not where my dad's supposed to be. This is not where I'm supposed to be.” — Ayla Gomez

• [21:50] – [23:16] Despite derailed dreams, Ayla reaffirms her determination to honor her parents’ sacrifices by excelling in her studies and continuing the family legacy:

  “That actually made me a little bit more determined. Like it makes me work harder because he’s not here...I put my foot on the ground and say, well, I gotta make the best of it.” — Ayla Gomez

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On family separation and empathy:

  “If they're hearing my story specifically, I hope they hear that and that they try to picture one of their daughters sitting here and having to talk about one of their parents like this, because somebody out there is wishing that on somebody else, and I just really want them to picture that.” — Ayla Gomez [14:56]

• On hope despite adversity:

  “Just me getting that call of being told, go pick up your dad...he's standing outside, like, quite literally the same exact person. He left, like, in his work clothes, just the way he is, with his face, like, his regular face...” — Ayla Gomez [15:59]

• On adjusting to loss and honoring the past:

  “It's a little crazy to say, but that actually made me a little bit more determined. Like, it makes me work harder because he's not here.” — Ayla Gomez [21:50]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:07] – Ayla recounts the moment her father is detained
• [05:04] – Ayla’s bond with her father and dreams for the future
• [07:09] – Fabricio’s faithful ICE check-ins and unexpected detention
• [10:14] – Adjusting to detention, clinging to connection
• [12:21] – Transfer to harsher detention and Ayla’s growing anxiety
• [14:56] – Ayla challenges the listener to empathize with families like hers
• [15:59] – Ayla’s enduring hope for a reunion
• [17:14] – News of Fabricio’s deportation and Ayla’s journey to Brazil
• [19:10] – Reunion at the Belo Horizonte airport
• [21:50] – Ayla’s resolve to continue her father’s legacy

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Conclusion

Family Separation 2.0: An Update personalizes the sweeping headlines of immigration enforcement, bringing listeners inside the emotional realities and aftermath of family separation. Through Ayla’s voice, the episode lays bare the long-term impact on American-raised children, the persistence of hope and determination, and the impossible choices forced upon families by deportation policies. This story is an intimate testament to love, resilience, and the struggle for belonging amidst the brute mechanisms of immigration enforcement.

Transcript

[Michael Barbaro]

This podcast is supported by Viking, committed to exploring the world in comfort. Journey through the heart of Europe on an elegant Viking longship with thoughtful service, destination focused dining and cultural enrichment on board and on shore. And every Viking voyage is all inclusive with no children and no casinos. Discover [e-mail] hey, it's Michael.

[Narrator/Host]

All this week, the Daily is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year, listening back and hearing what's happened in the time since they first ran. Today, we return to the subject of President Trump's broad and historic crackdown on immigration. To reach his promised deportation numbers, Trump increasingly sought to deport those without a criminal record. Those who came to the US Decades ago and who have established lives, careers and family in this country. Daily producer Jessica Chung told the story of one such man who was detained this year through the eyes of his daughter. It's Tuesday, December 30th.

[Ayla Gomez]

So I was in class. I was about to turn in all my work to the teacher, so I was already starting to pack up my things slowly and I got a call from my mom. She seemed very down and she was like, it's like when you hear somebody, they're trying not to cry, but like they're really, like holding it in. And I could hear in her voice, and that's when I started to get a little bit worried. And she told me that, like, your father got detained and it's just like you just start envisioning the worst. Like, he's in this terrible place. This is a hard working man, no criminal record, like you guys just took him.

[Jessica Chung]

I first spoke to Ila back in February. This was a month into the Trump administration, which had promised quick and mass deportations. I was calling immigration lawyers around the country, trying to get a sense of who exactly was getting targeted for deportation and how ICE was fining them. And that's when a lawyer called me back saying, you got to talk to Ayla.

[Ayla Gomez]

Hello.

[Jessica Chung]

Hi.

[Ayla Gomez]

Hi. So this is Jessica. This is ayla. She's Fabrizio's 20 year old daughter.

[Jessica Chung]

Okay, great.

[Ayla Gomez]

Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, too. My name is Aila Gomez.

[Jessica Chung]

Right now, Aila's a sophomore at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Massachusetts, where she's studying architecture and interior design. She was raised in a town called Saugus, just outside Boston, where days before we had talked, her dad was detained by ICE officers. Tell me a little bit about your dad. What is his name? How old is he and what does he do?

[Ayla Gomez]

My dad, he's Fabricio Gomez. He is 47 years old, and he works at a construction company of his own.

[Jessica Chung]

Isla told me in 2001 her dad had settled here in Massachusetts as an undocumented immigrant. He'd come here from Brazil. This was three years before Isla was born. Tell me about why he left Brazil.

[Ayla Gomez]

Sorry, I'm just asking, like, these questions for my mom. So my mom said it was due to the violence down there and, like, he couldn't make a living for himself, let alone have a family down there.

[Jessica Chung]

When he first got here, he lived with his aunt, who was already here. But eventually he met Ayla's mom, who's also from Brazil.

[Ayla Gomez]

They actually walked into each other and they were like, oh, my God, like, I remember you, blah, blah, blah.

[Jessica Chung]

And they moved out on their own with money Fabricio made by working in construction.

[Ayla Gomez]

So he had been working, like, small jobs, almost like a handyman. And then he met somebody, which is my dad's old boss that still remains in our life, Ken. And he slowly taught my dad how to work. It went from, like, changing door panels, windows, to fixing inside the house, and then it went to roofing until he gathered up all his knowledge that he had. And then that's when he decided that he was ready to open his company and start creating a life for himself and our family.

[Jessica Chung]

And is your sense that he loves his job?

[Ayla Gomez]

Yes. My dad is actually very passionate for his job. You would think you wouldn't be because you're constantly going up a ladder. It's so cold. Since we live in Massachusetts, and it's really a hard job.

[Jessica Chung]

Even though he wasn't fluent in English, he had this way of connecting with people.

[Ayla Gomez]

My dad, he's always talked to his clients like he knew them for so long. I don't know how he talks to them. Like, everybody understands him.

[Jessica Chung]

For as long as she can remember, Eilis wanted to be just like him.

[Ayla Gomez]

As a little kid, I was like, my dad's kind of tomboy. I'd always buy construction, little kids kit and I would always go around the house with, like, plastic toys. Me and my dad are the type of person where we take something that is not good and we reform it. When something's not designed properly, it just feels down. And when you reform it, it brings another life.

[Jessica Chung]

It sounds like you and your dad shared a special bond over your love of building things.

[Ayla Gomez]

Yes. I always wanted to work with my dad, which is why I went to college for architecture and interior design, so eventually in the future I could work with my dad's company.

[Jessica Chung]

Ila says her dream is that her dad's company becomes a family company with her.

[Ayla Gomez]

His dream was always for us to go to college and pursue something that we have passion for, because they weren't able to choose their own path. You're not born saying, I'm going to clean toilets, I'm going to be a contractor. You're born thinking, like, I want to be a businesswoman, I want to have my own company, I want to have my own home. And it's just like, that's what their main goal for us was, that we're able to choose our own path. My dad, he's always been the person to tell us, work hard, nothing's gifted, nothing's handed, go after it.

[Jessica Chung]

So fast forward to today. The dream that you described your dad having for you guys was in progress. Like, you're in college, your dad is working hard at a business that he owns. When Trump was inaugurated on January 20, did your family have conversations about what precautions you guys would take, given that he was aggressively pursuing people without documentation?

[Ayla Gomez]

I would always ask my dad, like, should we worry? And he'd always tell us, like, no, don't worry as much as, obviously, when I'm alone, you always have that thought in the back of your mind, like, what am I going to do? What if things go down?

[Jessica Chung]

Fabricio had no criminal record, and he didn't want to hide from law enforcement. He wanted to do things the right way. He's had a pending application for a visa. In the meantime, he's been checking in with ice. He's been doing that for 12 years. In February, just one month after Trump's inauguration, he was due for another check in.

[Ayla Gomez]

So he just shows up for his yearly check in, and you go there, you represent yourself, talk about whatever is being asked. And that was about it.

[Jessica Chung]

And so her dad shows up to his check in, like he always does. And it was soon after that that her mom called her in class, notifying Ayla that her dad had been detained.

[Ayla Gomez]

I was hyperventilating. I felt like my heart just left my chest. I think about him being there. I think about him being in this close up space, space. So I worry a lot at night, like, what if he's panicking? And we don't know what if he's holding strong, but he's actually having the hardest time in his life. Like, that's what constantly replays in my head. So it just felt like my whole heart got ripped out of my chest because I never got to really say a proper goodbye. Like, I'll see you later.

[Jessica Chung]

We'll be right back.

[Michael Barbaro]

This podcast is supported by Viking, committed to exploring the world in comfort. Journey through the heart of Europe on an elegant Viking longship with thoughtful service, destination focused dining and cultural enrichment on board and on shore. And every Viking voyage is all inclusive with no children and no casinos.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

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[Jessica Chung]

Isla's dad was detained on February 26th. He was taken to the Plymouth County Correctional Facility, about an hour's drive away from their home. Eventually, Ilo was able to reach him on the phone.

[Ayla Gomez]

I'll give it to my dad. From the first day that he called us to speak to us, that man has Holden strong. He has the most positive energy and so positive that he will see us and things will go back to not normal because I don't feel like anybody could really treat life as normal after the situation, but definitely better.

[Jessica Chung]

Ila's dad told her to hold strong too. He said the detention center wasn't so bad. He told her he'd gotten a job cleaning, which allowed more time outside of his cell. He started a Bible study with a group of other detainees and he was allowed visitors.

[Ayla Gomez]

I'm the only one eligible to visit because I'm over 18, but he told me like, as much as I would love to see you guys so much, just don't come here because this is not the person that I am and it would hurt to see you get up from that chair and turn your back and have to leave.

[Jessica Chung]

But as the days in custody turn into weeks, the two of them adapted to a new version of their relationship. No visits. They talk on the phone a lot as often as five times a day.

[Ayla Gomez]

We open every conversation like he was here with us. Like I'm walking into the house saying hi to him. Being said, hi, dad, how are you? I missed you. We continue lives how it is on the phone. I gave him updates on my grades, I gave him updates on my finals. Well, I can't show to him my projects since they're all like online based. Cause they're all like floor plans, stuff like that. But I like give him the visual analysis.

[Jessica Chung]

These calls went on for two months. And then in April, Isla learned of two major developments. First, ICE was going to enforce an order of removal against her dad, which meant he could be deported immediately. Second, Ice was moving him over 1600 miles to a notorious detention center in Louisiana, which had been investigated by the Department of Homeland Security for alleged abuses. Isla says her dad's new detention center in Pine Perry, Louisiana, is nothing like the one in Plymouth.

[Ayla Gomez]

It's quite literally a prison where people that actually committed real crimes would be in. Like he's in a jail cell where it's just like 10 times worse.

[Jessica Chung]

Things feel different. She senses that the brave face her dad had put on is starting to crack.

[Ayla Gomez]

I don't want to say he's in full panic, but he's really feeling it. Even so on the phone, like, I can hear himself let go.

[Jessica Chung]

And this change in mood is starting to have an impact on Ayla too.

[Ayla Gomez]

There's something wrong. My anxiety has been over the roof. It just feels like it's so hard to get through your day. It's so hard. Like you cannot tell me they'll be taking my dad and he will be embraced. Brazil for the next 10 years, up until we can reapply for him to come like that does not cross my mind.

[Jessica Chung]

Oh, man. Would you ever consider moving to Brazil to be with your dad if it came to that?

[Ayla Gomez]

As much as I would love to stay here and be like, yeah, my family is going to reunite in Brazil, where it can't be a plan due to the fact that my parents have worked way too damn hard, too many years of their damn life to come here. I will be continuing college and if anything, I will be continuing their success times that by 100. I refuse to believe that they'll be throwing that away. And if I can even continue my dad's company to keep going and get other people to manage it, I will be continuing to making their name. It's one thing to take my dad away from me. It's another to take everything that they worked hard For I wanted to ask.

[Jessica Chung]

You know, what do you make of the fact that for a lot of Americans, your father's story, while sympathetic, might, at the end of the day, feel like, yeah, he ultimately was here, not legally. What would you say to those people who might agree with the administration's policies to remove people like your dad who don't have documentation here?

[Ayla Gomez]

I'd get it if you're talking about a murderer that doesn't belong here and he's just out running on the street, or I'd get that. But if you're okay with separating families because they're just simply immigrants, that's a battle you're dealing within yourself. If they're hearing my story specifically, I hope they hear that and that they try to picture one of their daughters sitting here and having to talk about one of their parents like this, because somebody out there is wishing that on somebody else, and I just really want them to picture that.

[Jessica Chung]

You mentioned you spent most of your life envisioning a future with your dad and going into business with your dad. Your given everything that's happened, what is that dream now?

[Ayla Gomez]

As of right now, there's, like, no dream, no goal. It's just like, okay, well, my dream is to kind of just be able to push through this.

[Jessica Chung]

Have you dreamt about reuniting with your dad? On the other hand, that's been my.

[Ayla Gomez]

Little ideal dream since February 26th. Just me getting that call of being told, go pick up your dad. And all I could think of is me just, like, parking my car, getting out my car. He's standing outside, like, quite literally the same exact person. He left, like, in his work clothes, just the way he is, with his face, like, his regular face.

[Jessica Chung]

Mm. Like no time had passed.

[Ayla Gomez]

No, like, literally no time has passed, but it feels like life spent upside down.

[Jessica Chung]

Yeah.

[Ayla Gomez]

And just hugging my dad. And all I could literally do is cry. Like, cry my literal heart out. Like, everything that I've been holding in, like, within these two months is. That's exactly how I see it. Just feels like it's going to happen. And it's all I think about. That's all I can envision, like, over and over again, every single day that I wake up and it's just me. Like, it's not like my mom's around, my sister's around. It's just like, me and my dad.

[Jessica Chung]

Ayla never got the call to pick up her dad. Instead, a few days after we had talked, she received more that her dad had been deported from the US To Brazil. So Isla packed a small suitcase for herself and a bigger one for her dad and she booked a ticket for one to Brazil. And on Tuesday morning at the arrivals terminal in Belo Orizanchi Airport, Isla finally got to be with her dad.

[Narrator/Host]

After the break, senior producer Jessica Chong on what happened after Isla reunited with her father.

[Michael Barbaro]

This podcast is supported by Viking, committed to exploring the world in comfort. Journey through the heart of Europe on an elegant Viking longship with thoughtful service, destination focused dining and cultural enrichment on board and on shore. And every Viking voyage is all inclusive with no children and no casinos.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

Discover [e-mail] AI promised intelligence, but it also exposed everything we couldn't see. Now there's a new way forward where protection, governance and AI trust move as one. Veeam and security AI accelerating safe AI at scale. Learn [e-mail] On January 6, Idaho Network revisits one of the most notorious cases of the past 25 years in the new documentary event the Cult behind the Killer the the Andrea Yeats Story When Andrea Yates drowned her five children in 2001, the world was shocked. How could a mother do something so horrific? This three part documentary exposes how the sinister influence of a cult may have driven Andrea's postpartum depression to the most tragic extremes. Don't miss the Cult behind the the Andrea Yates Story January 6th on.

[Ayla Gomez]

Once you go through all the tunnel and everything, it's literally like a storefront door, like a sliding door. It just slides and like there behind that door and I literally see him like standing in front of the door. I gave him a big hug. Like I missed him so much. It was so shocking. It's just like, what am I doing in Brazil? That was like such a weird moment where it's just like I'm so happy to see him but I'm in shock. I'm like, what are we doing here? I guess this is it. Like this is how things are for now.

[Jessica Chung]

I guess that the feeling you're describing is that you don't feel like you belong there in Brazil.

[Ayla Gomez]

Yeah. Relationship wise and treating each other completely normal. For me it was definitely that feeling of like every day that I would wake up, it would be so weird. It's like hot there. It's tropical. I don't belong here. I don't belong here. This is not where my dad's supposed to be. This is not where I'm supposed to be. Waking up and like trying to see my dad adjust there too is very weird to me. It feels like he's like on A like vacation, that there's no end date too.

[Jessica Chung]

Is there specific things you saw that like triggered you into thinking I'm not supposed to be here? Is it like the smell of, I don't know, the air?

[Ayla Gomez]

It was actually like seeing things. Seeing my dad with his brothers, I never seen that a day in my life because he has four of them actually was very weird to me and I couldn't like grasp it. They're just talking. They have like so much to catch up on within years. And it's not that he doesn't belong, obviously that's his family, but like that is, you know, not his family family. Like we're his family, like his future wise here. So seeing my dad like sitting there with the past as if they're little and you know, the present is somewhere else. It literally feels like he's catching up on the past and in my opinion, not going anywhere.

[Jessica Chung]

You mentioned that you wanted when we last talked to work with your dad and that the dream was to start a company to design and build places. And I guess I wonder if that's still the plan if you feel like that dream is still possible in some way.

[Ayla Gomez]

I definitely feel like the dream is powerful. There is change of plans, unfortunately, but that doesn't mean I can't continue his legacy. And my dad definitely didn't come here for I believe 20 or 24 years of his life here. Built all this in a give up. It's a little crazy to say, but that actually made me a little bit more determined. Like it makes me work harder because he's not here. I do co ops. I work full time, you know, ever since life took a big churn financial wise. So I'm always constantly working when I'm not in school. It's a very busy life. I just work. I just work and go to school and the cycle repeats every single day. I kind of took this as a sign of like, I need to get up and kind of do my own thing, build my life. I can't depend on my parents. Like they're always there for moral support. Phone call away. But I need to grow up. I put my foot on the ground and say, well, I gotta make the best of it.

[Narrator/Host]

Today's episode was reported and produced by Jessica Chung. It was edited by Michael Benoit and Jody Becker with help from Ben Calhoun. It was fact checked by Susan Lee. Contains music by Dan Powell, Pat McCusker, Alicia Etoupe, will Reed and Marian Lozano and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley, Rowan Misto and Chris Wood. That's it for the daily I'm Michael Balbaro. See you tomorrow.

[Michael Barbaro]

This podcast is supported by Viking, committed to exploring the world in comfort. Journey through the heart of Europe on an elegant Viking longship with thoughtful service, destination focused dining and cultural enrichment on board and on shore. And every Viking voyage is all inclusive with no children and no casinos. Discover [e-mail].