A reader recently sent me an email asking me to include a link to their GoFundMe in my next immigration article. The message read: “As you’ve reported on ICE-related cases, I’m reaching out to share an interview opportunity and a verified GoFundMe started by (name omitted) to support her father, Jose Padron, who is currently in ICE detention in El Paso, Texas.”
Nowhere in the message does the reader claim her father is in the country legally or that his arrest was unlawful. The only argument offered against his deportation is that he has lived in the U.S. illegally for a long time and now wants to stay.
According to the GoFundMe page: “I’m a 22-year-old living in Atlanta, and I’m seeking help for my father, who was detained by ICE in the Tallahassee raids on May 29, 2025. He’s lived in the U.S. for 24 years and has never had a criminal record.
We didn’t hear from him for 54 hours, and when we finally did, he was in El Paso. He begged us to fight for his case so our family can stay together in the United States.”
The email concludes with contact information for the fundraiser and a request to consider including the campaign in future coverage.
Posts and media articles begging for sympathy for illegal immigrants always follow the same formula.
They emphasize the person’s job or role: “a student was deported,” “a hardworking groundskeeper,” or “the father of three.”
Sometimes they go over the top—“a nuclear physicist on the verge of discovering the nature of man and the fabric of the time-space continuum was deported.”
Other times, the focus is on what the person was doing at the moment of arrest — “an honor student on his way to a soccer game,” “a father eating dinner with his disabled children,” or “a mother pulled over for a minor traffic infraction, like failing to signal.”
They also tend to stress that the individual has “no criminal record.”
But none of these details are relevant. People aren’t deported for being fathers, students, or good neighbors. They’re deported because they lack legal residency.
It also doesn’t matter what they were doing at the time of arrest. They are not being arrested for committing a crime like theft or assault, they are being arrested for violating immigration law, either by entering the country illegally or by overstaying or violating the terms of a visa or other legal status.
After receiving that email, I decided to do some investigation and found that this has become a growing trend: families of individuals arrested or deported by ICE raising money through GoFundMe.
As is almost always the case, these pages do not claim that the person was in the country legally. Instead, the argument is simply that ICE was wrong to arrest them because their family doesn’t want them deported.
One ironic detail is that many of these fundraisers are started by the children of deportees. This is often because the children are U.S. citizens, while the parents are not.
Statistically, if one parent is in the country illegally, it is likely the other is as well. Yet the GoFundMe campaigns and the sympathetic media coverage surrounding these cases rarely mention the immigration status of the remaining parent, or the possibility that they might also face deportation.
Instead, the focus is entirely on fighting to bring back the deported parent, at least until ICE catches up with the other one.
While reviewing GoFundMe pages, I came across a typical campaign run by a young woman on behalf of her parents.
The page begins: “For nearly four decades, they have built a life here—raising three daughters, giving back to their community, and recently welcoming their first grandchild.”
Notably, she doesn’t state that her parents are U.S. citizens or green card holders, only that they’ve been in the country a long time and have raised three daughters. The implication is that the children are citizens, which raises questions about so-called “anchor babies.”
Liberals often claim there’s no such thing as an anchor baby, but clearly the concept exists in practice: someone enters the country illegally, gives birth to U.S. citizen children, and then the family, media, or activists argue that the parent should not be deported because of the children’s citizenship.
The campaign goes on to say: “Now, they are being treated as criminals, held in detention centers, and facing deportation.”
That part is accurate—her parents are criminals. They broke the law and are being treated accordingly. She adds, “This cruel and unjust situation has shattered our family emotionally and financially.”
But there’s nothing unjust about it. U.S. law clearly states that individuals cannot enter or remain in the country illegally. The post provides no legal justification for why this situation is unjust, only an emotional appeal, which has become the standard argument in these cases.
Many GoFundMe pages focus on the allegedly “inhumane” conditions of detention and the emotional toll on the family, especially the children left behind, yet they offer no legal justification for why the individual should not have been detained.
In one case, a woman was detained by CBP at JFK and later transferred to a Louisiana ICE facility. This is a recurring theme in media coverage: outrage over the chain of custody.
For some reason, initial detention at an airport like JFK followed by transfer to an ICE facility is treated as shocking or unacceptable. But where else should immigration violators be held while awaiting deportation?
Her supporters describe conditions such as being stripped of possessions and using open bay showers—facilities that are standard for athletes, college dorms, and military recruits across the country.
Detention is not pleasant, but one obvious way to avoid it is not to break the law. The campaign focuses heavily on Ngozi’s role as a mother and beloved community figure, yet never makes any claim that she is lawfully present in the United States.
The media often complain that ICE detention centers are located far from families, yet the federal government only has a limited number of facilities. Apparently, the liberals want the U.S. to build more ICE detention centers to accommodate detainees closer to home. Finally, we all agree.
The post GoFund an Illegal – Families of ICE Arrestees Are Collecting Cash Online appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.