After winning a months-long custody battle, Heury Gomez eagerly awaited the day he’d bring his disabled son, hospitalized for the past seven years, back home to his Manhattan apartment.
But his plans collapsed five months later when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Gomez, 43, on Aug. 5, and later transferred him to a Michigan detention center.
“We’ve been able to schedule like video calls, and when Noah recognizes his dad on the calls, he gets really happy, but at the same time he kind of makes an expression, looking like, ‘Where are you? Kind of like why have you abandoned me? Why haven’t I seen you?’” Gomez’ cousin Carolina Zapata said.
“This is probably the longest stretch of time he has gone without seeing his dad. That’s hard. It gets us really emotional when we think about it, because this little boy, we can’t explain it to him.”
Federal agents detained Gomez at Newark airport as he returned home from a short birthday trip to Mexico— a respite before he began medical home training necessary to bring home 18-year-old Noah, who is non-verbal, suffers epilepsy and depends on a tracheostomy tube.
“He was held at the airport for over 30 hours, literally just sitting in a chair, not being able to lay down somewhere to sleep, not being able to use his phone, just waiting,” said Zapata, 36.
He was later brought to an ICE detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Gomez, originally from the Dominican Republic, entered the country legally and has held a green card for nearly twenty years, according to Zapata.
DHS cited a prior arrest as the reason for his detention.
“On August 6, CBP arrested Heury Gomez Grullon, a criminal illegal alien, who was deemed inadmissible when he tried to enter the country. He was previously convicted two counts of assault with intent to cause physical injury and petty larceny,” a DHS statement said.
“President Trump and Secretary Noem are now enforcing this law as it was actually written to keep America safe.”
Zapata said the arrest was a decade ago and Gomez was convicted on misdemeanor charges.
“I mean, you have to really ask yourself, Is it fair? Is it fair to this guy? He is not a danger to society, and he’s not harming anybody,” Zapata said. ” All he does is work and take care of his son. That is all. And I am not even kidding when I say that.”
Zapata said the convictions stemmed from a “petty argument” over an EBT card with his former partner. Gomez served 20 days in jail, completed probation and paid fines for the 2015 convictions, but always maintained his innocence, Zapata said.
Now Gomez is going on nearly three months in detention because of those convictions.
While being held at the New Jersey facility, ICE agents woke Gomez up at 4:00 a.m. on Aug. 19, shackled him and flew him to a Michigan detention center where he is still being held.
“He was actually crying that night. It was one of the first times I heard him cry since he had been detained, because he was just in so much disbelief,” Zapata said. “He’s like, ‘Why am I being treated like this? I didn’t do anything wrong.’”.
Worse than the demoralizing treatment from federal agents, Gomez’ family said he’s very anxious being unable to see his son.
“At his core, he is really sad, because his main concern is that he wants to get out of there to see his son. He thinks about him a lot and he’s worried about him,” Gomez’ sister Aurelquis Gomez said in Spanish, adding that her brother is unable to get regular updates from the hospital on his well-being.
“It didn’t matter how tired he was, how many hours he worked that week, or or what was going on in his life, he always carved out the time to go visit his son and spend time with him consistently,” his cousin said.
In March a family court judge ruled that Noah would have “a safe and permanent home” with Gomez, acknowledging his consistent, hands-on caregiving as proof of his ability to meet his extraordinary needs.
“They have a really beautiful relationship,” Zapata said. “This kid loves his dad like and it’s actually pretty incredible to see and witness in person. Once it clicks in his brain, like, ‘Oh, like my dad is here,” he starts laughing and he starts smiling.”
Due to a lack of oxygen during birth, Noah suffered a brain injury which caused multiple medical challenges including a developmental delay, chronic lung disease and scoliosis among other things, Zapata said.
Zapata said Gomez’ detention has taken a huge emotional and financial toll on their family as they work with an immigration attorney in hopes of stopping his deportation. An online fundraiser created by the family to cover legal fees had raised $43,700 as of Friday.
Zapata said the family is holding onto hope as they await his Nov. 12 cancellation of removal hearing, where Gomez’ attorney will make a case before the judge as to why he should not be deported.
“I’m worried but I’m also trusting my faith in God that justice will be served because it’s not fair what my brother is going through,” Aurelquis, 48, said.
In the meantime, Gomez has been keeping himself busy, reading the Bible, exercising and cleaning for one dollar a day at the detention center, Zapata said.
Aurelquis, who has been visiting Noah while Gomez remains detained, said the teen has been sleeping more than usual.
“When I went to visit him on Tuesday, he was in school but he was sleeping in class. His teachers and his therapists tried to wake him up but he was very stubborn and did not want to get up,” Aurelquis said.
“But as soon as he heard his dad’s voice on the video call he woke up. Huery was so happy to see him, and one of the first things out of his mouth was ‘Noah don’t worry, I’m going to see you in two weeks. In two weeks we’ll be back together.’”
“That’s him remaining hopeful that everything will turn out in his favor,” she said.
