He’s the sole caretaker for his disabled son. Now he faces deportation

By Zoe Sottile, Caroll Alvarado, CNN

(CNN) — When Heury Gómez returned from a much-awaited birthday vacation in August, he was ready for the responsibility of a lifetime: caring full-time for his disabled son.

A few months before the vacation, Gómez, a 43-year-old legal resident of the US from the Dominican Republic, had been awarded full custody of 18-year-old Noah, who suffers from cerebral palsy and epilepsy. Noah is nonverbal, cannot walk and requires continuous care. Gómez took the 5-day trip to Mexico City as a brief respite before starting intensive training to care for Noah at his home in New York City.

However, Gómez never started training. He was arrested by US Customs and Border Protection when he arrived at Newark Airport in New Jersey. He now faces removal proceedings stemming from two misdemeanor convictions from nearly a decade ago.

His case is another example of how the Department of Homeland Security has vastly expanded its targets for immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump’s second term. The administration has both overseen sweeping raids targeting undocumented immigrants regardless of their criminal records and cut down on pathways to legal immigration, including asylum. Green card holders like Gomez have been caught up in the deportation effort, too, including Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was incarcerated by ICE for months.

The administration has said they’re targeting “the worst of the worst” and focusing on violent criminals.

“President Trump and Secretary Noem are now enforcing this law as it was actually written to keep America safe,” the Department of Homeland Security told CNN in response to an inquiry about Gómez’s case.

Gómez’s family and attorney say he’s not violent – and he’s grown and changed since his 2017 convictions for attempted assault with intent to cause physical injury and attempted petit larceny, both of which stem from the same 2015 altercation with a former partner.

Instead, they describe him as a focused and loving father. He learned to cut hair, so he’d be able to cut Noah’s hair, according to his sister Aurelquis Gómez.

Gómez has now spent over three times as much time in ICE detention as he served for his 2017 convictions. It’s been almost three months since he saw his son.

He’s “being torn away from his child over something that has been resolved, and he’s long outgrown,” said Carolina Zapata, his cousin and roommate.

A lifetime of care

Gómez was 23 when he arrived in the US in 2005 and was granted lawful permanent resident status that year. His son, a US citizen, was born just two years later.

Noah was born with fluid in his brain, a condition called hydrocephalus, which caused severe medical complications and ongoing neurological problems. He breathes thanks to a tracheostomy – an operation that installed an opening in the front of his neck – and eats through a feeding tube.

Noah needs round-the-clock care. It’s a responsibility Gómez fought for in a yearslong custody battle that ended in March, when he was granted primary custody. In the custody order reviewed by CNN, the court noted Gomez had made his son’s care a priority, working nights as a custodian at a Manhattan university to make it easier to visit Noah during the day.

Gómez dedicated himself to learning the intricacies of Noah’s medical needs, his cousin said, including how to monitor the seizures he suffers and carefully suction mucus from his tracheostomy tube, so he breathes easily. He has a penchant for singing to Noah as he administers his medications or bathes him – anything to make him smile.

Noah “really loves his dad and smiles the most around him,” Aurelquis Gómez said.

Before his detention, Gómez visited Noah often at the New York City hospital where he’s his son is currently receiving full-time care, his sister said. He has been in residential care since 2018.

A permanent resident ‘treated like a stranger’

In the first week of August, Gomez went on vacation to Mexico City before he would have started preparing to bring Noah home from the hospital.

But when he returned to Newark on August 5, Gómez was detained by CBP. He was described as “a criminal illegal alien, who was deemed inadmissible when he tried to enter the country,” in a statement sent to CNN from the Department of Homeland Security. He was held at the airport for over 30 hours, according to Zapata.

Gómez’s attorney, Bryan Pu-Folkes, told CNN his client was classified as an “arriving alien” and DHS initiated removal proceedings based on the argument Gómez’s past misdemeanors are classified as acts of “moral turpitude,” a term used in a 1952 law that encompasses crimes like fraud and injury to other people.

Gómez “came back into this country as a permanent resident, and he was treated like a stranger,” his attorney said.

After first being detained in New Jersey, Gómez was awakened in the night and flown to an ICE facility in Michigan on August 19, his cousin said. His sister told CNN it’s too expensive for family members to fly to visit him, and challenging to make the 12-hour drive.

During his calls from ICE detention, he says he’s scared and struggling to be away from his son, Zapata said.

The office of New York City Mayor Eric Adams told CNN it was “saddened” to hear about Gomez’s detention. “Regardless of immigration status, everyone in New York City should be able to get an education, seek medical care, and practice their faith,” said the office in a statement. “But unfortunately, incidents like these discourage immigrant communities from using city resources and living their lives.”

For Pu-Folkes, the removal proceedings are a disproportionate response to a decade-old episode in his client’s life. Gómez was sentenced to 20 days in jail and probation and required to take courses after his convictions. Aside from those misdemeanors, Gómez has “lived flawlessly in this country,” Pu-Folkes said.

Pu-Folkes is now fighting for the cancellation of removal for permanent residents, a form of relief that requires them to prove Gómez continuous residence in the US and he deserves “this form of relief as a matter of fairness and compassion.”

“The heart of the case, I would say, is proving that his removal would cause extreme hardship to Noah, his US citizen son,” Pu-Folkes said. “We’re not asking for leniency. We’re asking for some common sense.”

Sweeping changes in immigration enforcement

Under previous administrations, Gómez’s detention would have been “extremely unusual,” according to Pu-Folkes. Gómez had traveled internationally multiple times after his conviction without issue.

“It’s not a new law that’s being applied today,” Pu-Folkes said. “It’s just that the laws on the books are being applied far more aggressively today.”

Charles Kuck, an Atlanta-based immigration lawyer, told CNN increases to ICE’s budget mean the agency “can enforce every law to the letter of the law, and they’re doing exactly that.”

At play in Gómez’s case is a decades-old immigration law that uses arcane vocabulary. Section 212 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 lists a series of groups of foreign nationals who are inadmissible to the US, including people with diseases who pose public health concerns, drug traffickers, sex workers, and people convicted of any “crime involving moral turpitude.”

The law itself doesn’t define moral turpitude, which Kuck characterized as an “intentionally nebulous” term that usually describes crimes with intent. The Foreign Affairs Manual, a document published by the State Department, groups a variety of crimes under the term, including fraud and crimes intended to harm people.

Pu-Folkes said the law “was really designed to keep people who were dangerous out of the country,” however, “the problem is when the law is used without any kind of fairness or proportion.”

Days full of anguish

Thousands of miles away from the ICE detention facility in Michigan, Aurelquis Gómez visits her nephew Noah often. She shows Noah his father over video calls. His discharge has been delayed due to his father’s detention.

In the Hell’s Kitchen apartment Gómez shares with his cousin, the signs of Noah’s disrupted arrival are everywhere. There’s new flooring installed to make it easier to move his wheelchair, and blinds to keep him from getting too much sun. The cousins had started emptying out Gómez’s bedroom so Noah could stay there instead, with enough space to accommodate his ventilator, wheelchair, and other medical equipment.

The detention has been costly – in more ways than one. The family has already paid thousands of dollars in legal fees, and they’ve started a GoFundMe to help alleviate the burden.

“There are days we cry and don’t eat,” Aurelquis Gómez said. “There are days full of anguish.”

The person who will suffer the most if Gómez is deported is his son, Zapata said, who “depends on the consistency and bond he has with his father.”

Gómez “spent years of his life doing the right thing,” she said. “I think it’s an example of what happens when a system stops recognizing redemption.”

Gómez’s removal hearing is expected to begin November 12.

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