For more than 26 years, Victor López Delara lived a life not unfamiliar to most Americans. The Florissant resident has two children, owns López Mechanics, a small mobile mechanic business, and is engaged. In his spare time, he volunteered in the community, often coaching Little League baseball games.
In February, that world began crashing down when he was pulled over by O'Fallon, Missouri, police during a traffic stop for not having a front license plate. Officers asked López Delara for his driver's license, but he didn't have one.
López Delara, who was born in Mexico and immigrated to the U.S. when he was 4 years old, does not have legal status. He was later transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody and has since been detained in the Ste. Genevieve County jail.
López Delara's arrest is among a growing number of ICE detentions across Missouri. Immigration arrests have more than tripled since the beginning of the second Trump administration.
Following months of delays, López Delara had his day in court last week. Nearly 50 letters from friends and family and 10 from former teachers were sent to the judge describing his character. But his petition to cancel his deportation was denied, forcing López Delara back to Mexico, a country he left 26 years ago when his family migrated to the United States. His fiancée and children will be following him to Mexico.
López Delara, who has no criminal history and two traffic violations, spoke to St. Louis Public Radio's Chad Davis by phone from jail last weekend as he awaits deportation.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
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Chad Davis: I just wanted to start off with a simple question, how are you doing?
Victor López Delara: Mentally, I am tired, I'm exhausted, physically tired, upset, angry. That's what I can describe as what I feel right now.
Davis: Talk a little bit about what the last few months have been like awaiting the trial date. Where has your mind been at?
López Delara: It's been exhausting, stressful, more than anything, lonely not having my kids, not having my wife here with me.
Davis: What did the judge say? What were your immediate reactions to the ruling?
López Delara: I went in there with a positive mind, knowing, you know, it could be 50/50. I was mentally prepared, I guess.
When it was all said and done, the judge basically said, "Well, your kids are healthy, your kids are young, so they're willing to adapt anywhere you guys are going." So that's basically what made his decision was the fact that my kids are healthy, so they wouldn't face an unusual and extreme hardship since they're healthy.
Davis: What were your emotions when the decision was made?
López Delara: I felt angry, I felt broken. I sat there and cried because I knew that that was the end of our 26-year journey that I was looking forward to continuing to be here.
Davis: What does this mean for you and your family now?
López Delara: It basically means that we have to relocate to an area, to a country that I have no knowledge of. Instead of migrating to the US, I'm migrating to Mexico and starting from zero, not having anybody down there, just secondary family.
Having to find a new school for my kids, having to readapt to a whole new lifestyle that we know nothing about. It's going to be hard.
Davis: Do you plan to appeal this?
López Delara: If I were to appeal, it would have been eight months to a year incarcerated until the appeals went through. And like I said, the reason they denied my case was because my kids weren't sick and they were perfectly healthy, and they're young and able to adjust into a new lifestyle, which is crazy to me, but you know that's the reason why I got denied, and he said it wasn't even going to be worth fighting.
Davis: What are some of the things that you are going to miss the most about St. Louis, about your community, about the people who you've been with?
López Delara: Friends, the lifestyle here, the freedom that we've had, well somewhat freedom, because you know, we would always have to look behind our shoulders to see who's there.
We grew up here, this is my home, St. Louis is my home. I felt like another U.S. citizen being here for so long.
Davis: What happens next for you in the immediate future? Do you know the date when the deportation will happen?
López Delara: They don't give us a date on when we'll leave or when we'll touch Mexico or when we'll touch our country. It's just a whole process. From here we go to Springfield, and from Springfield we can go anywhere from Louisiana, Mississippi, or El Paso, it's just a whole process that could take up to 10 days to two weeks. I don't know what the future holds for me, I just hope that it's a better future. I would have loved for my future to continue to be here in St. Louis with all my friends and family, but unfortunately that's not the case.
Davis: What do you want the message to be from [your] situation, so that others can hear?
López Delara: The government doesn't care what your situation is. If they see that you're Hispanic, that you have brown skin, they're taking you in, whether it's riding a bike, going to work, coming home from work, providing for your family. They don't really care anymore whether you're trying to do the right thing or not. I've met people in here that are here on asylum and they go to their court dates that they have court dates for, and they go and try to do the right thing and they get taken in.
Davis: Anything else that you'd like to add?
López Delara: I wish there was another way for me to be here legally, the proper way, just like everybody said that we should do. What people don't understand is, it takes 10 to 15 to 20 years for that to happen. It's expensive, it gets really expensive with lawyer fees, application fees and all that. It's not as easy as people make it seem, 'Oh, just come here the legal way,' it's not as easy, and I wish people would really understand that.
I really hope that my case reaches people and there's a change, and I really hope that by me going back and having to start a whole new life in Mexico, I hope it doesn't affect me in the future if the laws change to try and come back legally. I don't know what the future holds for me. I'm scared, I get anxiety but it's hard having to be away from your family for three months.
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