A protest was held outside of the federal building Wednesday to fight the deportation of a Rochester area man.
Gilberto Reyes-Herrera was riding as a passenger in a car that was stopped by a state trooper because the driver wasn’t wearing a seatbelt in June of 2017.
Although Reyes-Herrera didn’t commit a crime and was wearing a seatbelt at the time, he was asked for identification and has since been in Alleghany County Jail for being undocumented.
Grania Marcus has been advocating for immigration reform for 30 years. She says they’ve been seeing more people getting picked up recently.
"Pain upon pain what can I say. How would you feel? You know, if you were going to lose contact with your spouse and children? It’s just a tragedy all around, for no good reason."
Reyes-Herrera came to the US from Mexico over 20 years ago. His three children are all American citizens.
Reverend Ruth Ferguson has been attending court with the family and said for those who don’t know where they stand on the issue, she hopes they see a human face.
"The truth that we can speak is that we are better than this. We are better than this, our country has aspirations and ideals and a humanity that we have strayed from. And every time we deport someone we deport a part of ourselves, our better selves."
Claudia Guthrie was also attending his hearing; she had been tutoring Gilberto helping him learn English. Initially the administration said they were going to go after criminals she said but now “they’re going after everyone.”
Guthrie says there needs to be better ways to remedy the situation rather than just deporting people.