Her husband was outside, yelling for her when ICE grabbed him. She hasn’t seen him in person since.
Jesreel Chimilio is among an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants who live in the U.S. Many have been here for years, pay taxes, own residences, and raise families.
Jesreel Chimilio is a family man.
He’s also hardworking, God-fearing, and a respected member of his community. When neighbors need help, he’s the guy they go to. Philly needs more men like him. Chimilio shouldn’t be locked up like a common criminal, arrested in front of his house by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
His family’s nightmare started as a typical Saturday in February. Charlene Maddox Chimilio was inside her home in Germantown preparing for a trip to the Please Touch Museum. Chimilio was on his way to work at a property management firm.
That’s when a phone rang. It was a neighbor calling to tell Maddox Chimilio that her husband was outside yelling her name.
Barefoot and wearing only a bathrobe, she raced to see what was happening. But it was too late. The love of her life and the father of her two children was gone. She stood outside crying, “They took my husband,” until a neighbor coaxed her indoors.
Maddox Chimilio, 42, hasn’t seen him in person since that cold day in February when life as she knew it changed. Since then, she has been a nervous wreck, barely eating or sleeping. “I’ve never experienced this before so it’s just, like, a lot,” she said.
Maddox Chimilio was walking along Church Lane in 2018 when Chimilio spotted her for the first time and said hello. She gave him her phone number and that kicked things off. They married in 2022.
“I fell in love with Jes because of how he knew the Bible,” Maddox Chimilio recalled. “And he’s a kind guy. He’s a smart guy. He’s a resourceful guy. He’s a good guy.”
Her husband was 17 when he moved from his native Belize to the United States with his mother in 2002.
In 2011, he was arrested on DUI and drug charges and served an 11-month prison sentence. But he had no further run-ins with the law until earlier this year, when Montgomery County police pulled him over on Feb. 2 and discovered he was driving without a license. (Like most states, Pennsylvania doesn’t permit undocumented immigrants to obtain licenses, which is a failing of the system that needs to be corrected.)
Immigrants who already live here need additional paths to citizenship.
“He’s married to an American citizen, with two children, a 3-year-old and a 9-month-old,” Maddox Chimilio said.
“He overstayed his visa,” she said. “But we have a president with [multiple] felonies, and he’s the president.”
Chimilio is among an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants who live in the United States. Many have been here for years, pay taxes, own residences, raise families, and are otherwise law-abiding. Roughly 4.1 million American children live with an undocumented parent, according to the American Immigration Council.
» READ MORE: Immigration reform, not crackdowns, would help America thrive | Editorial
There are so many horror stories about immigrants being treated the way Chimilio was, as President Donald Trump ruthlessly goes about fulfilling his campaign pledge to crack down on illegal immigration. By now, I should be way past being shocked, but I’m not.
It has just been one awful incident after another: seven workers at the Complete Autowash Philly in January; a married couple from Turkey who own the Jersey Kebab eatery in Haddon Township; four undocumented Brazilians at the Jumbo Meat Market in the Northeast.
Most never make the headlines.
About a third of all Americans are all for what’s happening, according to a recent Pew poll. But hopefully, somewhere down deep in their souls, they know there needs to be a more humane way to enforce the nation’s immigration laws.
Immigrants who already live here need additional paths to citizenship.
Maddox Chimilio, who is a schoolteacher, is in the process of applying for asylum for her husband.
She shouldn’t have to navigate this alone. We must rally around her. Politicians should reach out to the appropriate federal agencies on Chimilio’s behalf. He needs to be at home while his situation gets sorted out.
“It’s really deplorable to pull a man away from his wife and children,” said Robin Nicole Sephes, who’s a friend of the Chimilios. “Every time I saw him, he was either going to work or coming from work, or he had a baby in his hand feeding the baby, helping his wife who is one my best friends.”
She added: “The block loves them. They’re just really great people. You don’t meet people like them too often. They don’t deserve this.”