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A Colombian lawmaker from the conservative party closely aligned with US President Donald Trump’s right-wing ideology said his son was detained by ICE agents last month amid the US immigration crackdown.
Angela Vergara said she decided to go public with the matter last week. The decision was in part to raise awareness of the harsh conditions Colombian immigrants face in the United States, in part because her son has not yet been allowed to return to Colombia despite requesting voluntary departure.
The incident has sparked debate online, with some critics questioning why Vergara, a member of a political party that often supports Trump, spoke out in defense of immigrants for the first time after her son’s arrest.
Ms. Vergara refuted the criticism, insisting that she had never supported immigration policies that she said violated human rights.
“This is not a political issue. It’s really a human rights issue,” she told CNN. “Just because you’re a conservative politician doesn’t mean you agree with human rights violations in Colombia or other parts of the world.”
Vergara said her son Rafael, 23, has been held in Louisiana’s River Correctional Detention Center for more than 20 days, describing conditions as “inhumane conditions.” She said he was being held along with many other Colombians waiting for flights home.
“He told me that he was in a cell with 70 other people and that he had gone 12 hours the day before without drinking water (and) that they were all sick,” Vergara told CNN.
The lawmaker said Rafael was driving a commercial cargo truck in Louisiana when he was detained by ICE agents after a routine inspection.
She claimed that Rafael was legally living in the United States with a work permit and paying Social Security. She said he applied for asylum a year after arriving in 2022 and was awaiting an asylum hearing scheduled for 2028.
CNN has contacted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, for more information.
Vergara said that after learning of her son’s arrest, her family requested a voluntary return to Colombia, believing it was the quickest way to resolve the issue. But more than 20 days after his arrest, she says her son is still in custody.
She attributed the delays to a “bottleneck” in the repatriation process, leaving thousands of Colombians stranded in the United States waiting for a limited number of flights.
Colombia signed an agreement earlier this month to resume repatriation flights from the United States. Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio said there would be approximately one flight per week over the next few months.
Vergara said she has called on the Colombian government to speed up relocations and increase the frequency of humanitarian flights.
Mr. Vergara’s conservative party maintains many positions more aligned with the American right than Colombia’s left-wing government under President Gustavo Petro, often expressing support for the American Republican Party.
In 2024, Colombian conservatives “celebrated” the election victories of Trump and Republicans in the House and Senate.
Last year, when the Trump administration decertified Colombia as a partner in the fight against drug trafficking, the party blamed Colombia’s president, not Trump, for criticizing the U.S. leader. They issued a statement pledging to support the U.S. anti-drug efforts.
After the murder of prominent American conservative activist Charlie Kirk in September, Vergara expressed his condolences and support for the activist, saying, “His resignation is a loss to those of us who resolutely defend life, family, and freedom.”
Still, despite sharing some views with the American right, Vergara insists she does not support inhumane immigration policies.
“I have always demanded due process and humane treatment for Colombians, both at home and abroad,” she recently wrote to X.
Vergara said her conversational tendencies give people false assumptions about her.
This week, she denied being a member of the group “Latinos Supporting Trump,” as many people online have claimed. She also denied celebrating the deportation of Latinos or calling for a U.S. invasion of Colombia.
On Tuesday, social media users and some news outlets shared a video of a woman dancing wearing a MAGA hat, which they mistakenly identified as Vergara.
The video was also shared by Petro, who later deleted his post after Vergara denied that it was his video.
In his post, Petro also mentioned the detention of Vergara’s son and called on the Colombian embassy in Washington to provide consular assistance. “Regardless of the paradox, the Colombian embassy in the United States…must assist this Colombian congressman in getting his son back.”
CNN has reached out to Colombia’s president for comment on this matter.
Vergara told CNN that he thought it was positive that Petro was addressing the issue, but insisted that requests for humanitarian flights need to be met.
