Washington family torn apart after father arrested outside of church and deported

A

rmando Chaj and his family were about to head home after attending the Sunday sermon at a church near their home in Everson. They had recently joined the evangelical congregation of Christ Fellowship and stayed behind to ask church leaders how to get more involved with the community.

The parking lot was nearly empty when Chaj and his family got in their car. That’s when federal agents arrested him, arriving in a Blue F-150 pickup, a white Ford SUV, a black SUV, and two other vehicles.

Leticia Villatoro, Chaj’s wife, tried to record a video during the initial arrest but said officers pushed her phone away.

Lea esta historia en español: A este padre de familia lo estaban esperando a las puertas de la iglesia para ser deportado

She started recording after federal officers had Chaj in handcuffs.

“It’s my husband,” Leticia Villatoro said in the video. She was talking to the pastor as he was approaching the family.

The pastor, Marcus Franklin, has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

The family was surrounded by agents from the Department of Homeland Security.

“My family is here,” Leticia Villatoro said to the pastor.

It was the Sunday after President Donald Trump took office and the administration had already started implementing plans for mass deportations. Part of those plans included deputizing federal law enforcement agencies to help with federal immigration enforcement and making the deportation process quicker.

As immigration enforcement ramps up, families like these — built over decades — are being confronted with hard choices after federal law enforcement takes members of their family away.

Chaj was one of what the Associated Press estimates is 1.5 million people in the U.S. with a standing deportation order. These are people who have gone through their immigration case, and a judge ordered them to be deported.

RELATED: Who's at risk of deportation in Washington state? 5 things to know

An estimated 200,000 homes in Washington have at least one member who doesn’t have legal status. That’s 6.4% of Washington households. Around 1 in 10 students from K-12 have at least one parent who doesn’t have legal status.

The agents who had Chaj in handcuffs were trying to figure out if they could take his eldest son as well. The 21-year-old son had an ongoing immigration case and was trying to get officers to talk to his lawyer — but they weren’t entertaining that idea.

“It’s my boy, it’s my son too. It’s all my family,” Leticia Villatoro can be heard saying in English on the video. Then she cries out in Spanish, “Tell them they took Armando!”

RELATED: Video appears to show ICE agents targeting Latinos in Washington state, but are mass deportations coming?

In the end, the Homeland Security agents only took Chaj.

Leticia Villatoro also doesn’t have legal status, but she wasn’t going to tell officers that. She has four children to take care of between the ages of 6 and 17.

Many of the initial targets for mass deportation efforts are people who already have standing deportation orders. Immigration officials already have their addresses on file. That includes people without legal status who’ve had serious criminal convictions, but it also includes people who’ve lived in the U.S. for decades who’ve been found to be overstaying a visa, or who confess to immigration officials that they entered the U.S. illegally.

“I had never heard my mother cry like that before,” said Alex Villatoro, her second oldest son. He’s a 17-year-old high school senior, and a U.S. citizen. “Seeing my dad handcuffed with three federal agents on him was horrible, was terrifying, it was a horrid image, and I still have it in my brain.”

There had been earlier signs that federal law enforcement was coming. Hours before, Leticia Villatoro got a ping on her phone in the middle of a pastor’s sermon.

It was the home surveillance system telling her someone was at their home. It was federal law enforcement knocking on the door.

“After that, I couldn’t concentrate [during Church] because it was hard for me to know,” Leticia Villatoro said. “They were looking for my husband.”

RELATED: Amid fears of deportation, immigrants are missing appointments at Seattle-area clinics

Chaj first encountered immigration officials in 2004, when he was 17 years old. Villatoro said he’d gone to pick up a friend who’d illegally crossed the border in Arizona when he got stopped. Agents eventually let him go, and Chaj would have to deal with his immigration case in court.

He spent 15 years fighting to get legal status. In 2019, his case was closed, and he was supposed to leave the country — but he never did.

Records show Chaj has no past criminal history. ICE has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

Leticia Villatoro said the prospect of being deported was always hanging over them.

"For doing a favor, look how many years afterwards there are consequences. God sees him, God knows he didn’t do anything bad,” she said.

A few weeks after his arrest, Chaj was deported back to Guatemala.

As neighbors stop by the family’s home in Whatcom County for eggs from the family's chicken coop, many don’t have a clue what the family is going through. Leticia Villatoro fears every knock could be immigration agents coming to take her away from her children.

The family has around 30 hens. Neighbors pay $3 or $4 for a dozen eggs. The family is proud of being able to provide for their neighbors this way.

There are other things the family is proud of, living their version of the American Dream. Chaj had a good job with a homebuilder — they were able to fully pay off their mortgage years ago.

While her husband brought in income, Leticia Villatoro carried out the work of a homemaker, including watching over one of their children who has Down syndrome.

They were getting involved at Christ Fellowship. Alex Villatoro is supposed to graduate high school this year with extra credits. He also has a girlfriend.

In the wake of Chaj’s arrest and deportation, Leticia Villatoro has decided to go back to Guatemala with her three youngest children — where she and Chaj both can care for them.

“One part of my life is leaving, and another is going to stay here with my sons… but it is what it is,” she said. “That’s all we have left to do.”

A cardboard box in the living room is filled with clothes, pots, pans, and blankets to take with her. Alex Villatoro plans to remain in the U.S. to finish high school.

After graduation, he will find a way to make it on his own with his older 21-year-old brother who still has a chance to fight for his right to stay in the U.S.

“We’re going to look for a way to support ourselves, make ourselves responsible for the bills that come to the house and basically… be adults,” Alex Villatoro said.

Two weeks after his dad was arrested, Alex Villatoro and his older brother took his mom and siblings for their flight to Guatemala and made it back in time for worship service at the same church where their father was taken away weeks earlier.

Alex Villatoro is starting part-time work in the warehouse of a mattress store. He has cut back on school but remains on track to graduate in June.

He said he looks forward to turning 18. He’ll be able to work more hours and someday pick up on the home building work his dad left behind.

He wants to be a realtor someday, a profession he describes as “blessing people with a home.”