A Florida congregation is reeling after its pastor was arrested by federal immigration agents and deported to Guatemala.
The Tampa Bay Times reported Maurilio Ambrocio, 42, was expelled to his native country July 2 after being detained by Immigration Customs Enforcement in April. He was arrested after arriving for a scheduled interview at an ICE office in Tampa.
Ambrocio and about 100 other Guatemalans were first transported to New Orleans, then by charter flight to Guatemala. He was permitted by local authorities to contact family and was offered help reintegrating into the country.
“My mother, my brothers and I are very saddened by all this, but also relieved that my father is no longer in prison and is a free man,” daughter Ashely Ambrocio said in an interview with the newspaper. “We were very worried about his health and the fact that he was locked up for so long.”
“We were very worried about his health and the fact that he was locked up for so long.”
Ambrocio’s Iglesia de Santidad Vida Nueva, a small Hispanic congregation south of Tampa, has remained empty since the pastor’s arrest and deportation, according to ABC affiliate WFTS TV in Tampa Bay.
“I know it’s his country, but it’s our father, and we need him over there and more,” Ashely Ambrocio said in the television report. “Many more people need him over there, the church, friends, family. They all need him back there.”
According to the Times, Ambrocio came to the U.S. at age 15, was removed from the country in 2006, then later returned illegally. He was successfully prosecuted for driving without a license in 2012, received a removal order a year later but was granted permission to remain under government supervision.
“I am very sad because my family and I until the last moment hoped for a humanitarian solution to be able to return to my family,” Ambrocio said. “But thank God I am free now.”
Ambrocio’s arrest and deportation highlight growing concerns about the expansion of the Trump administration’s deportation efforts far beyond the initial focus on violent criminals.
In May, the Department of Homeland Security announced the termination of Temporary Protected Status for about 11,700 Afghans effective July 14. However, a federal appeals court stayed the action until July 21 to give the administration and immigrants’ lawyers time to file briefs in the case.
TPS provides protection from deportation and work authorization to immigrants who face persecution in their nations of origin. Anyone forcibly returned to Afghanistan would undoubtedly face grave danger from the Taliban regime, which took control of the nation in 2021.
Jennie Murray
“The termination of TPS for Afghans will disrupt the lives of thousands of beneficiaries, harm the communities that have integrated them, and remove essential workers from key sectors of the American economy that depend on their contributions,” said Jennie Murray, president of the National Immigration Forum.
Murray urged Congress to create a pathway for Afghans to remain safely in the U.S.
“Since so many of those losing their protections served alongside U.S. forces, we should honor that service by upholding our promise to provide safety and ensure that they have an opportunity to thrive here,” Murray said.
The Department of Homeland Security also has sought to end TPS protections for hundreds of thousands of other immigrant groups, including Cameroonians and Nepalese.
Some of the terminations have been met with lawsuits, resulting in delays imposed by U.S. district judges. But the U.S. Supreme Court has sided with the administration in a case involving 350,00 Venezuelans and in another affecting 500,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.
ICE agents arrested Iranian asylum seekers in Los Angeles last month, NBC News reported. “The detentions follow a pattern developing throughout the country of targeting Iranians as tensions continue between the Trump administration and Iran.”
Some of those arrested are Iranian Christians who escaped persecution in the country where non-Muslim religious groups are frequently oppressed.
An Iranian pastor who witnessed one of the arrests said the target was an asylum seeker who was going through legal proceedings to remain in the country.
“I was just shocked. Am I in Iran or am I in LA?”
“I was seeing a woman on the ground and masked people who wouldn’t show their warrants,” the minister said. “I was just shocked. Am I in Iran or am I in LA?”
A surge in ICE raids on farms, hotels, meatpacking plants and restaurants, meanwhile, has alarmed politicians and business leaders.
“The number of detainees following these operations remains unclear, but the implications on the workforce loom large,” according to Dairy Herd Management, a monthly magazine covering the commercial dairy industry.
The raids have resumed after President Trump ordered a brief pause on such actions in mid-June, Reuters reported.
Skye Perryman
In an effort to document the scope of these and other actions, Democracy Forward filed a lawsuit July 11 accusing the Trump administration of covering up the extent of its anti-immigration efforts.
“These are public institutions carrying out public actions with public dollars — yet they are operating in secrecy without accountability,” said Skye Perryman, president of the national legal organization behind multiple lawsuits against the Trump administration. “The American people have a right to know how and why these aggressive immigration policies are being implemented, and whether those policies are being driven by individuals outside of government with extreme political agendas.”
The litigation filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia follows numerous unanswered Freedom of Information requests seeking communications between the White House, ICE, DHS, Trump adviser Stephen Miller and others.
The lawsuit “seeks to compel the agencies to promptly release documents that would shed light on high-level coordination between DHS and ICE officials and individuals associated with America First Legal (AFL) — a far-right group co-founded by Miller — and on ICE’s controversial use of plainclothes, masked agents to carry out mass arrests while not providing or wearing identification,” Democracy Forward explained.