An Idaho dad is self-deporting to Mexico with his American wife and four U.S.-born kids, fearing Trump's immigration crackdown will rip their family apart.
Cenobio Feliciano-Galeana crossed the border illegally when he was 18 years old.
Since then, he's built a life in America: he married a U.S. citizen, Ashlee, and together they've raised four children - all born in the United States.
But Cenobio, who was not able to obtain a green card or citizenship, has now made the painful decision to self-deport.
Ashlee, Cenobio's wife, says she and the family are coming with him.
At the end of the year, she plans to move with her four children to a country they have never known, just to keep the family together.
Since they began their relationship, Ashlee says she and her family have been trying to get Cenobio through the process to gain legal status in the U.S., with no luck.
Several lawyers and thousands of dollars later, she says not even being married to a U.S. citizen helps Cenobio's cause.
Cenobio Feliciano-Galeana, who entered the U.S. illegally nearly two decades ago is choosing to self-deport - bringing his American wife and four U.S.-born children with him
Despite years of trying to legalize his status, Cenobio Feliciano-Galeana has been told he has no path to citizenship, even through marriage
'If I had a penny for every time somebody has said that, I'd have the money to pay for those lawyers,' she said.
She says the lawyers initially told them they had a fifty-fifty chance of getting Cenobio
After the Trump administration was sworn in, she says she was told they had no chance.
Their options were to stay and risk it—or have Cenobio self-deport and try again in 10 years.
'We have a six-year-old down to a nine-month-old baby. Ten years without a father? That is huge,' Ashlee said.
For her, moving with him is the only option. Staying behind in the U.S. was out of the question.
'Wait for one day them to come into my home and take my husband away like a criminal and have my kids have to see that. And I decided that was not a choice I was willing to live with,' she said.
Ashlee says Cenobio never committed a crime. His name doesn't bring anything up in the Utah court system. His only offense was being caught at the border twice and crossing illegally.
His wife, Ashlee, says staying behind and risking ICE tearing their family apart isn’t an option
Their story comes as Trump’s ICE steps up arrests across the country, with Los Angeles erupting into chaos amid mass protests, National Guard deployment, and hundreds of illegal immigrants detained
That itself is a crime—one that Ashlee acknowledges but doesn't believe should be a life sentence.
'He was born on the wrong side of a line. He came here because he was starving. You know, what would you do if he truly went days without eating, starving? Where would your desperation lead you?' she said.
Their decision comes amid a dramatic escalation in immigration enforcement under President Trump, whose return to the national stage has reignited fear in mixed-status households across the U.S.
President Trump’s ICE is ramping up arrests of criminal illegal aliens, even as protests and riots rock Los Angeles in response to the sweeping crackdown.
More than 160 anti-ICE protesters have been arrested in LA since Friday, according to local authorities—many for failure to disperse, and at least one, a Mexican national in the country illegally, for attempted murder after allegedly hurling a Molotov cocktail at law enforcement.
Trump has also federalized the National Guard and deployed Marines to Los Angeles to restore order amid growing unrest surrounding ICE operations.
But the sudden presence of armed forces has done little to ease tensions—cities from LA to New York have erupted in protests, with local leaders and immigrant advocates slamming the crackdown as authoritarian and lacking due process.
A source familiar with ICE operations told DailyMail.com that hundreds of illegal aliens have been arrested in LA since protests broke out on June 6.
President Donald Trump and his administration are celebrating the containing ICE operations in LA that are rounding up illegal migrants despite violent protests and riots
Anti-ICE protesters clash with police near the Federal Building and detention center in Los Angeles, California on June 9, 2025 amid protests over immigration raids
Skirmishes between masked demonstrators and riot police have gone viral online, alongside footage of looting, burned-out vehicles, and chaotic street clashes.
One video shows agitators pelting police and ICE vehicles with rocks—some smashing windshields, others striking agents in the head.
Trump has repeatedly weighed in on the violence, blasting California Governor Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass for, in his words, "losing control" of their cities.
