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They voted for Trump: Now their son is in ICE detention and they "feel betrayed" [1]

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Date: 2025-05-08

On May 6th, the Atlanta Constitution Journal (AJC) reported :

"Martín Verdi and Débora Rey supported President Donald Trump in 2024, backing his pledge to crack down on undocumented immigration. But now, their son Agustin Gentile, a green card holder and father of two U.S. citizen children, is being held in ICE detention at Stewart Detention Center in South Georgia".

The paper added detail:

He [Gentile] was detained at the airport over a misdemeanor from a case that had been officially closed in 2023. But, under Trump's tougher immigration policies, green card holders re-entering the country, like Gentile, are being targeted for old criminal convictions, even if they were low-level offenses. AJC's Lautaro Grinspan met Verdi and Rey at El Refugio, a hospitality house in Lumpkin, Georgia, for families visiting detained loved ones. Now, the couple says they feel betrayed by the dragnet they once supported.

I am not religious. But let me borrow the language of those who are. MAGA has visited evil on America. In addition to the physical, psychological, and economic harm this dismal philosophy has dumped on so many who daily contribute to America's success, it has made me something I do not want to be — a hard-hearted bastard.

Before this dystopian age, I would viscerally feel the pain of a parent whose child was detained, locked up, and facing deportation. But these parents voted for the agent of their child's destruction. And they cannot claim ignorance of Trump's ambition.

In a life dedicated to mendacity, the sadist-in-chief has told one consistent truth. He hates immigrants from south of the border. But these immigrants voted for him anyway. Now they are reaping the reward of their choice. I have no sympathy for them. I don't want to feel this way. But here we are.

Verdi and Rey aren't even native-born Americans. The Daily Beast reports :

Martín Verdi and Débora Rey, naturalized U.S. citizens originally from Argentina, backed Trump's hardline immigration agenda — but never imagined their family would be swept up in it.

Author's note: It is unclear why Agustin is not a citizen while his parents are. I also don't know why he has neither of his parents' surnames. I understand that in Hispanic culture, a child has the last name of both parents. But in this case, Augustin has neither. Whatever.

It is hubris to say you didn't imagine that bad things would happen to you when you voted for bad things to happen. Now, like characters in a Greek tragedy, these unhappy Trump voters are feeling the sting of their callousness. You made your bed ...

Agustin's mother, Débora Rey, told AJC:

"[Trump] didn't say he was going to do this, that he was going to go after people who have been here for a long time. He said he was going to go after all the criminals who came illegally." "We feel betrayed, tricked. This is craziness."

Welcome to Trumpworld. It is a place populated by bigots, tumescent with delight that Trump is doing what he said he was going to do. And morons paradoxically gobsmacked to discover — despite an ocean of evidence — that Trump both lied and did what he said he would. If you chose to believe a Guinness Book of World Records-class con artist, that's on you.

This is how so many Germans must have felt as the walls closed in on the Third Reich. "He promised everything was going to be great. And the only people who would get hurt were 'the others'." They didn't bother to understand that in a dictatorship, anyone can become 'the other'.

The deluded Rey reveals that she was motivated to vote for Trump because Biden saw the humanity in others. She justified her vote for darkness by saying :

"This was a massive deception what he [Trump] did. Because the other side had shown us how indulgent they were [with immigration]."

I thank her for this. Because she has justified my hard heart. Rey thinks the Democrats were "indulgent"? Why? The Biden administration did not take its foot off the deportation pedal. Expulsions increased every year under the previous administration. The statistics also show that Biden deported more people than Trump currently does.

Regardless, she wanted less "indulgence," and she got it. If you get what you wish for, you have no justification to cry about it. Unbox the tiny violins.

I do feel sorry for Agustin's children. Because their grandparents got what they wanted, these young American citizens may well have to move to Argentina if they want to grow up with a father. I can understand their feelings. I was born in the U.S. but raised in a different country. However, my father chose to move to England — and had no problem returning to the U.S. whenever he wanted.

Because the U.S. used to be the land of the free, not a nascent police state.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/5/8/2321228/-They-voted-for-Trump-Now-their-son-is-in-ICE-detention-and-they-feel-betrayed?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web

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