Food-Truck Owner's Possible Deportation Has Shaken Many in Southwest Houston

HOUSTON, TX — The man who until early last month operated two Taquería Gómez food trucks in southwest Houston is facing deportation, and that has other immigrants in the area frightened for their own futures.

Armando Garcia, known as Piro, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on February 8, and has been held by ICE since, awaiting deportation.

A statement from ICE said that Garcia, who is from Guatemala, had originally been deported in 1994, but re-entered the United States and was convicted of a misdemeanor assault in 2002.

News of Garcia's arrest has spread among people in the area.

“It wasn’t like that before. Now, you just go out, talk a little bit and that topic comes up,” José, who declined to provide his family name, and who bought lunch regularly from Garcia, told KUHF in Spanish.

He added that he recently began wiring more of his earnings to Mexico in case he is deported.

Yazmin, an employee at the food truck — she also declined to use her last name — said that fewer Latinos have been eating at Taquería Gómez since Garcia's arrest.

"I'm scared all the time," Leticia, a woman who owns a retail business located near a Taqueria Gomez truck, told National Public Radio, which added that she asked that her last name not be used, because she, too, is undocumented. Leticia has for the past 25 years lived in Houston, all the while running her business. She has purchased a home and raised five children during that time.

"I don't go to the Catholic church anymore," Leticia told NPR. "I don't go too much to the grocery stores. I work and come back home. I stay and tell my kids: Please lock the door. Don't open the door to nobody."

Garcia's common-law wife, Rosie, has consulted with immigration attorneys, KUHF reported, who told her that Garcia would likely be deported.

A Gofundme campaign has been establish to help pay for Garcia's legal defense, and so far has raised $4,690.

— Image of Armando Garcia courtesy gofundme.com