IE Father Detained By ICE Returns Home Months Later: Report

POMONA, CA — After spending two months in federal immigration detention hundreds of miles away from home, a father of four has reunited with his family in Pomona, The Press Enterprise reported.

Masked agents detained Jose Luis Zavala at his gardening job in La Mirada on June 18, a day that is now seared into the Zavala family's memory.

That morning, at 5 a.m., he hugged his teenage daughter, Arabel, as he left for work.

“I told my mom in the car, I know (the raids) are happening, but I don’t think you have to worry,” Arabel told the newspaper. “They are not around the area yet. But I didn’t know they were in the area. I didn’t know it was going to happen later on that day.”

READ MORE: 'They Left The Lawnmower Running.' ICE Agents Swarm Gardeners In SoCal Neighborhood

When she and her younger sister found out, the day became a frenzied scramble to make a plan. They wondered if they would ever see him again, at least on U.S. soil.

“He hugged me,” Arabel told the newspaper, remembering the morning of that day. “I didn’t hug him back because I was still sleeping. I just broke down, because the first thing that came to my mind was that I didn’t hug him back.”

Maria Murillo, Zavala's wife, was able to get into a federal holding facility in downtown Los Angeles with the help of Pasadena Mayor Gordo to get her husband vital medications. Days later, he was taken to a detention center in El Paso, Texas, where he remained until Wednesday.

Zavala is undocumented and came into the U.S. illegally in 2002 from Guanajuato, Mexico. In 2003, he met his wife and the pair settled in Pomona in 2006, where they would have their four children.

Read more from The Press Enterprise: ‘It’s a miracle’: A Pomona father reunites with his family after weeks in ICE detention