Texas County turns to Trump's fight against immigration crackdown after facing the bakery

Los Fresnos, Texas (AP) – Bakeries in Leonardo Baez and Nora Avila-Guel in the Los Fresnos community in Texas are stopped every day, and many residents can share gossip on their coffee and pick up cakes and cakes and pastries for birthdays, offices, offices or themselves.

Residents of Los Fresnos were shocked when Homeland Security Investigation Agents attended the bakery in Abby in February and arrested the owner and eight employees. Abby’s bakery doesn’t hire violent criminals, and Baez and Avila-Guel aren’t the ones who challenge what Tsar Tom Homan calls “the worst of the worst” and say it’s a priority for mass deportation.

“I was surprised because I knew they weren't taking advantage of the people,” said Esteban Rodriguez, 43, who pulled into the bakery parking lot and found it was closed. “It's more like helping people. They have nowhere to go, not they're on the street.”

The response in the 8,500-resident town may show limitations in support of President Donald Trump’s immigrant repression in most Hispanic areas, which are scattered with areas of cotton, sugar cane and red grapefruit, with Republicans making gains in last year’s election. Cameron County voted for the Republican president for the first time since 2004. For the neighboring Starr County, this is the first time since 1896.

Now, Mexican couple Baez and Avila-Guel are legal permanent residents of the United States who may lose everything after being accused of concealing and hiding illegal immigrants. This is a rare situation where business owners face criminal charges, not just fines.

Los Fresnos has a Latino of 90%, considering the school district as its largest employer, about half an hour from the U.S.-Mexico border. Every day, hundreds of school bus drivers, painters, retirees and parishioners from nearby Catholic churches enter Abby’s bakery every day. Customers using silver trays and tongs choose pastries from glass door cabinets.

The owner has a green card, but the employee does not

Six of Abby's eight employees were on a U.S. visit visa, but no one was given a work permit when Homeland Security investigators started their business on February 12. According to a federal complaint, the owners admitted they knew it.

An agent's affidavit said the staff lived in a room with six beds and shared two bathrooms with the bakery.

Baez, 55, and Avila-Guel, 46, pleaded not guilty. They handed the problem to lawyers, pointing out that the workers did not go against their will and did not try to hide their existence like smugglers.

As green card holders, the couple may be deported if they are convicted. They have five children who are American citizens.

The bakery was closed a few days after its arrest and on a cold night, about 20 people protested.

Pedro Briseño of the Church of San Cecilia often visits Campechana before early morning mass, a flaky, crisp pastry dough topped with caramel sugar. His routine was interrupted when plainclothes immigration agent arrived in an unmarked vehicle.

“A woman came here and cried. She said, 'Father, father, they're going to take my brother,'” the priest walked over and saw the agent bringing hands to bind the staff using the zipper button.

There are restrictions on support for deportation

An Associated Press-NYC Press Center Center for Public Essurane Research Poll in January said that there was an overwhelming bipartisan support for illegal deportations in the United States and was ruled as violent crimes, with 82% in favor. Support for the illegal deportation of all people in the country has been greatly reduced, with 43% of them supporting it and 37% opposing it.

Trump and top aides have repeatedly stressed that they are deporting criminals. But, as Homan often says, others in the country are there illegally, and officials will also be deported when arresting criminals, which runs contrary to what the Biden administration has done.

So far, Trump has avoided large-scale factory and office raids, which were his first term and the term of Republican President George W. Bush. The dispersed reports of smaller businesses include the recent arrests of 37 people in a roofing business in northern Washington.

ICE said that in the 12 months ended September 30, an average of 311 people were arrested every day, with an average of 311 people per day in the first 50 days of Trump’s first 50 days. Nearly half (14,111) of convicted offenders, and nearly one-third (9,980) have no charges for a designated crime, ICE said.

People with deep connections in the community, no criminal record often lead to more sympathy.

Bakery is a staple food for Los Fresnos

Abby reopened after the owner was released.

Two sisters in their 60s, Chela and Alicia Vega, retired from the school district and met bakery owners for many years, both are customers who fill trays. Chela Vega said the couple had taken a week off to send them to San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Leonardo Baez didn’t need to cut down damaged trees when the hurricane hit.

For Terri Sponsler, 61, shopping at Abby's is now a political statement. “With everything happening right now in our country, we need to find a way to protest,” she said.

Mark W. Milum, city manager at Los Fresnos, said Abby is a major business that can contribute property and business tax revenue to the $13 million annual municipal budget.

Some customers just like these products.

“Other bakeries, they will pop up, right?” said Ruth Zamora, 65. “But when you go there, that’s not the same.”