"Samuel Gonzalez Terrones, 21, died by suicide two months after ICE detained his mother.
Samuel had been diagnosed with depression and schizophrenia. His family says he grew increasingly despondent as his mother remained in custody.
A federal judge later ruled Minerva Terrones Dominguez’s detention unlawful and ordered her release, but without Samuel she no longer qualifies for the immigration relief her lawyers had pursued.
In May, when Samuel Gonzalez Terrones was diagnosed with depression and schizophrenia, he started seeing a therapist and taking medication that he hoped would finally alleviate the dark thoughts that had begun creeping up so frequently he would sometimes seek help by calling the police on himself.
A month later, his mom, Minerva Terrones Dominguez, 54, had just hopped off a bus on her way to a grocery store in San Bernardino when immigration agents arrested her for being in the country illegally. While she languished in detention, the family said, Gonzalez grew increasingly despondent.
To help pay for an immigration lawyer, his siblings and dad had taken up extra shifts at their jobs. But because Gonzalez’s condition meant he couldn’t hold a steady job, he spent more and more time alone at home in Rialto.
“My mom was the one who would take care of him when he would have those bad thoughts,” said his older sister Sari Gonzalez, 32. “Everybody would be at work or at school, so my mom was the only one that would be here to calm him down, to say, ‘Your siblings will be here in a bit, just wait.’”
The lawyer, Arturo Burga, had figured out a way to free Terrones from detention and allow her to stay permanently in the U.S. The legal pathway, called cancellation of removal, hinged on proving that her deportation would cause extreme hardship to a U.S. citizen: Samuel."
~ Andrea Castillo
"His mom was detained by ICE. Two months later, he died by suicide"
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