In one of the first phone calls Alyssa Nevarez had with her husband on Thanksgiving, he listed items for sale so she could afford the mortgage on their New Mexico home.
He was scared, but his first concern was taking care of his wife and four children.
Juan Nevarez and his 16-year-old son, Jonathan, were only hours away from reuniting with Alyssa in Nashville that day. She had flown ahead with three of their children to spend more time with her brother, country singer Frank Ray.
They had family waiting in Nashville and were going to be Ray’s guests at the Grand Ole Opry’s 100th anniversary celebration.
The two were in line at the TSA checkpoint at El Paso International Airport when Nevarez showed the agent his employment authorization card. The card, renewed in March, is valid until 2030.
Juan Nevarez, pictured with his wife, Alyssa, and their four children, Jonathan, Emily, Anthony (left to right back row) and Jacob, was detained at El Paso International Airport after showing his valid employment authorization card to TSA on November 27, 2025.
“He was detained by TSA, then Border Patrol, and ultimately turned over to ICE, even though his immigration documentation is current,” a press release from Ray’s representatives said.
Nevarez’s son was only with his father that day, instead of flying ahead with his mother, because he wanted to spend time with his father, Ray said. If Jonathan hadn’t been there, the family may not have known immediately that he had been detained.
“When they realized they had a 16-year-old American citizen who was, you know, a minor in their custody because of this incident, obviously they had to try to remedy that situation,” Ray said. “Sometimes they just catch you and detain you and put you in detention and people are left wondering what happened. So I strongly believe that, I’m speculating, that would have been the case if Jonathan hadn’t been there.”
Jonathan was released into the care of his grandfather.
Caught in a limbo
Nevarez was born in Mexico but has lived in the US for two decades. He first befriended Frank and Alyssa’s older brother. Through Nevarez he met his wife.
“He’s nice to begin with,” Alyssa Nevarez said when asked what drew her to him. “He has a big heart and is very charming. Juan is a great father. He wants the best for our kids, wanting to give everything he didn’t have growing up. He raised our kids to have a strong work ethic, just like he does.”
The couple married and had four children – three boys and a daughter. He has been a foreman for Renegade Construction, a company serving southern New Mexico and West Texas, since 2016 and works with granite and tile on the side, his wife said.
He has always been on top of his paperwork and pays taxes just like a U.S. citizen, Ray said. Nevarez has a green card application pending in addition to his employment authorization card. But simply having that valid work permit doesn’t mean Nevarez has legal status.
“He felt like he’s good, he’s good for the next five years,” Ray said. “He flew on the same work visa before. So it wasn’t going to be any different as far as he was concerned. Unfortunately, it was different.”
Nevarez had a waiver of removal in 2015, which would have allowed him to stay in the country if he could prove he’s been in the U.S. for 10 or more years, hasn’t been convicted of a crime, and that removal would cause hardship to your citizen or lawful permanent resident spouse or children. But under the Obama administration, immigration resources were stretched thin, and he ordered judges to release low-priority applications and focus on people with felony convictions.
“It makes no sense to spend our enforcement resources on these low-priority cases when they could be used with greater impact on others, including people who have been convicted of serious crimes,” an August 2011 White House press release said.
Nevarez’s case was one of those low-priority cases and was administratively closed on May 12, 2015, according to online records from the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review. He was one of nearly 132,000 people whose cases were administratively closed between 2011 and 2017, according to data kept by the immigration review office.
Responses from ICE to questions about why Nevarez was detained were not returned by press time.
Complicated emotions
The hours and days after Nevarez’s apprehension were and remain full.
“He calls everyday and we can do video calls. I was able to visit on Saturday and Sunday because it’s only an hour away,” said Alyssa Nevarez. “Some days are better than others. I have to remind him to be strong and not give up. God has his plans and this is just something to keep our faith in God. I can’t imagine those families that are further away who are going through the same situation.”
Nevarez is currently in the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral, New Mexico, on an ICE hold, according to the agency’s online detainee database.
“You hear stories like this all over the place, just rounding up people of Latino or Hispanic descent, just based on whatever technique, and that’s the fear that’s going on in the Hispanic culture,” Ray said. “For lack of a better term, you are being racially profiled and some of these tactics that ICE and these agents are using are just, if not illegal, borderline illegal and just plain shady.”
For Ray, navigating this situation causes complicated feelings. He was a policeman for 10 years.
“As someone who has Mexican heritage, it’s always been a fine line to walk, but to be honest, it hasn’t changed my support for law enforcement,” Ray said. “It’s much more complicated than that. They can be pro-politicians, but I think this situation in particular is wrong. I think that, because in general, I think it’s a game they’re playing. They’re playing with people’s lives, and it’s just to get political currency to use for the next election.”
This article originally appeared on the Nashville Tennessean: ICE detains Frank Ray’s brother-in-law en route to Nashville