They told Rosmery Alvarado to show up for her green card interview. She did. And ICE was waiting to kidnap her.
Rosmery, a 42 year old Guatemalan mother of four, breast cancer survivor, and longtime resident of Pittsburg, Kansas, thought she was taking a final, hopeful step toward stability. Her husband, Nixon Moran — a newly naturalized U.S. citizen — had filed all the proper paperwork to adjust her status. Their family gathered photos, legal documents, letters of support — everything the system said would “prove” she deserved to stay.
Instead, they were lured into a trap.
A Letter That Sparked Panic
It started with a letter. Not to their lawyer — but directly to Rosmery. A “summons” to the Kansas City U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office. No warning. No explanation.
Their attorney immediately flagged it: Something isn’t right. Typically, immigration lawyers are notified first about case updates. Interviews are scheduled with notice. Attorneys attend with their clients. None of that happened here.
The family scrambled. Nixon and Carina rushed to gather every scrap of documentation they could. Carina, just 20 years old, watched her parents try to steady themselves — and fail — as fear and doubt gnawed at their hope.
When Rosmery and her family arrived, officers at the building refused to even confirm why she had been summoned.
“She had to make that choice herself if she wanted to go in and try and do the interview, or if we would just walk out and go home and risk ICE coming to get her at our home,” Moran told The Star. “Or her potentially having to look behind her back every day and making sure that she didn’t get caught somewhere else.”
Inside the interview room, an officer told them: “Everything looks good. You guys have all the information we needed.” Then, moments later, ICE agents stormed through the back.
They cuffed Rosmery on the spot. Forty minutes after the family walked into the building, Nixon walked out alone, tears burning his eyes.
No goodbye. No hug. Just disappearance.
Inside the Detention Camp
Rosmery is now caged inside Chase County Detention Center — a rural, freezing, violent space in Cottonwood Falls, Kansas where the state hides people it wants to erase.
She faces deportation over a nearly two-decade-old removal order — something the family didn’t even know existed until it surfaced during Nixon’s citizenship journey. Rosmery, a diabetic and a survivor of breast cancer, now sleeps without blankets, is denied adequate food, and struggles to access her necessary medications.
A Family Torn Apart
Carina Moran told CBS 42: “It feels like she’s been stripped away from me, and I feel like I’m never going to see her again. I’ve been with my mom my entire life. I don’t know what it’s like to not have her. [I] have to tell my younger brothers that they’re not going to get to see their mom. It makes me feel awful to see my dad struggling the way he is.”
Carina’s GoFundMe to support the family raised nearly $15,000, but no fundraiser can undo the devastation. No dollar replaces a mother ripped away without warning.
“It feels empty,” Carina said. “The house feels empty. Life feels empty.”
📢 Call to Action:
- Abolish ICE.
- End all family separations.
- Defend and protect undocumented people.
- Demand immediate release for Rosmery Alvarado.
Support the family: GoFundMe for Carina’s Family
🖤 In defense of every mother they try to disappear. In defense of every family they try to destroy. We will not stop fighting.
