NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — For Chelsea White and her children, the world as they knew it came crashing down when she and her husband encountered a Tennessee Highway Patrol checkpoint on a Friday night along a quiet stretch of highway in a rural area north of Nashville.
Around 8:30 p.m. on May 9, White and Hilario Martinez-Garcia were heading back to their home in Ashland City, Tenn., after finishing a cleaning job. That’s when they encountered the THP sobriety checkpoint just north of Springfield.
During that checkpoint, state troopers were also working with agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), looking for undocumented immigrants. That area in Robertson County they were posted at is primarily a farming community that has been known to attract migrant labor.
In hindsight, White said she does not believe that officers were really concerned on that night about looking for DUI offenders.
“What they was looking for,” she told NewsChannel 5 Investigates, “was color of skin.”
It would be the last time that White would see her 46-year-old husband, who had crossed the border from Mexico a quarter of a century ago and settled down. Married in 2013, the couple have three children, with a fourth child due in November.
That night, thanks to ICE and the THP, their family was torn apart.
Martinez-Garcia has since been deported back to a country he has not seen in 25 years, leaving his family without their primary means of financial and emotional support.
"I never imagined him being gone,” White said as tears streamed down her face.
“I figured we was good. I figured they was looking for criminals – like Trump said. I figured that they would run his name, see that he's not a criminal and that was it. I didn't think that he was ever going to be taken by ICE."
An immigration attorney working to try and help the family said this case is one of the most disturbing he has seen in his career.
"I've been doing work like this or similar to this for 25 years,” said Michael Holley, an attorney with the Tennessee Immigration and Refugee Rights Coalition.
“I really think this is the most senselessly cruel thing I've seen done by the justice system in all that time," Holley said.
In response, THP released a statement arguing that being in the country illegally "is a federal offense" and families are often adversely impacted when people are arrested for breaking the law.
The statement insisted that any actions taken in the case were based "on evolving facts, not race, ethnicity or nationality."
NewsChannel 5 has also reached out to ICE for comment.
Detention part of ICE-THP coordination
Martinez-Garcia’s detention came during a period when ICE, at the direction of Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, had teamed up with the Highway Patrol to make traffic stops to give immigration officers an opportunity to interrogate potentially undocumented immigrants.
Most of the public attention at the time focused on the ICE-THP efforts in Nashville.
White told NewsChannel 5 Investigates that she thought little of it when she first encountered a state trooper at the sobriety checkpoint.
She was behind the wheel, her husband was in the passenger seat as the officer approached their Ford Fusion.
"He asked, 'Have you had anything to drink or smoke tonight?' I said, 'No, sir, we have not.' He said, 'You're good to go.'"
That is, she said, until one of the officers spotted her husband inside — and asked the couple to step out of the vehicle.
"He just came to the window, looked in and seen him and asked us to pull over to the side," White recounted.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked if there was anything distinctive about her husband or his behavior that might have given law enforcement a reason to want to pull him out.
"No,” White insisted, “other than the color of his skin."
There, on the spot, ICE agents took Martinez-Garcia into custody. White said the officials would not let her say goodbye to her partner, and she would not hear from him for a week.
Hilario Martinez-Garcia described as 'family man'
The night of Martinez-Garcia's detention, his wife recalled, was the first time their young children went to bed without their father.
"He's never been away, not even for a night away from them," White said, again fighting back tears.
“He's not somebody that goes out and parties or does anything crazy. He's a family guy that goes to work, comes back home, takes care of his family," White said.
Martinez-Garcia was also a man who encouraged his wife to get her GED and was supporting her as she attended school to become a nurse.
"He was my biggest supporter,” White recalled as she continued to cry. “I'm losing everything – everything that I own, everything that I've worked so hard to get. Everything."
We wanted to know, given his American wife and children, why Martinez-Garcia never got an immigration green card to remain in the United States legally.
White said they considered it but were told that it would cost thousands and thousands of dollars.
“It's something that we didn't have, trying to take care of our family. We was doing our best getting by as it is,” she explained.
Attorney calls case 'senselessly cruel'
By the time attorney Michael Holley got involved, Martinez-Garcia was already at a migrant detention center in Louisiana.
"To me, it's just amazing that immigration agents have been given the power to arrest someone, take them away for days and days without presenting them to a judge, without presenting charges, without even letting them make a phone call,” Holley said.
“It feels like someone is being disappeared."
Still, the attorney thought his client was exactly the type of person whom immigration rules consider eligible to be released on bond.
But at Martinez-Garcia's bond hearing last week, immigration officials speculated, based on some sketchy data in a government database, that Martinez-Garcia might have been jailed at some point for a few days for some crime somewhere in the country.
Martinez-Garcia testified he had no idea what they were talking about, Holley added.
“And then the judge said she found him to be a danger and she said he can't remember crimes that he may or may not have committed," Holley said.
We asked, "So she had no evidence that he had actually committed a crime?"
“She had no evidence,” Holley insisted. “She had the allegation of an immigration agent that had looked at a database that we know nothing about."
Holley said that Martinez-Garcia was later brought back before the judge – this time, without an attorney – and somehow agreed to drop his appeal.
He was quickly deported back to Mexico.
"He was like, he didn't see no chance. The judge didn't even look at anything that was turned in,” White said.
What's next for Martinez-Garcia's family?
Now, Chelsea White and her young family struggle to figure out how to go on.
None of the children speak Spanish and two of them have special needs that American schools have been addressing, so moving to Mexico is not a great option for the family.
Their 11-year-old daughter, Arianna, struggles to imagine life without the father she adores.
"I have a picture of my dad and me when I was little in my room – and I stare out it and I cry my heart out,” Arianna said.
We asked the little girl, "What would you tell President Trump if you had a chance?"
"I would say let all the good people out and let all the bad people in jail,” she answered. “It's not fair for people that's not bad to be in jail and not see their family whenever. It's really hard."
Meanwhile, White said — without the love of her life at her side — she finds little reason to hope for tomorrow.
"I'm currently in the process of one vehicle being repossessed, I'm losing my house,” she said. “I don't know where my next move is, honestly. I don't know. I'm lost. I've never been in this situation before. I'm alone as it is. So, I don't know."
Below is the full statement from the Tennessee Highway Patrol:
"This action was based on evolving facts, not race, ethnicity or nationality. The checkpoint falls squarely within legal authority under Tennessee law and U.S. Supreme Court precedent (Michigan v. Sitz).
"While we understand the human impact when families are affected, it’s important to note that this occurs in many criminal cases, from DUIs to theft or domestic violence, when a parent or provider is arrested.
"Being unlawfully present in the country is a federal offense, and our troopers have a duty to uphold the law fairly and professionally.
"In this specific case, immigration enforcement was handled by ICE, and further specific questions surrounding about that particular arrest should be directed to their office."
GOFUNDME: Attorney Holley's wife, Mary Beth Holley, has created a GoFundMe to help the family. Click here to view the fundraiser.
If you have information on anything that I should investigate, please email the details to me. My email address is phil.williams@newschannel5.com.