Two Trump Voters Say They Feel 'Betrayed' After Their Green Card Holder Son is Detained by ICE

Latinos played a key role to bring President Donald Trump a victory in the last presidential election. Now, as the administration cracks down on immigration, some of those who supported him say they are feeling "betrayed" by the Republican president and the scope of his policies.

That is the case of a couple from Argentina, Martin Verdi and Debora Rey, who have American citizenship and cast their ballots for Trump last November. However, they say they now feel "betrayed and deceived" after their 31-year-old son, Agustin Gentile, was detained in an airport after trying to re-enter the country for an alleged misdemeanor that was closed in court in 2023, Noticias Telemundo reported.

Gentile was detained in February at LAX, the Los Angeles airport, where the Department of Homeland Security confiscated his green card, his Argentine passport and ordered him to appear at a Customs and Border Protection office in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he resides.

Gentile moved to the U.S. with his family in the 1990s, later becoming the father of two American kids. He was convicted in 2020 of battery and sentenced to three years of probation, ending in 2023.

"[Trump] didn't say he was going to do this, that he was going to go after people who've been here a long time. He said he was going to go after all the criminals who came in illegally. We feel betrayed, deceived. This is crazy. What he did was a big deception," Rey told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The couple said their son would request his return to Argentina if his case is delayed. He is currently being held in ICE detention at Stewart Detention Center in South Georgia.

The Argentine consulate in Atlanta said they are aware of the case and have provided help for the family.

Gentile's case, and his thoughts about self-deporting, comes as President Trump announced this week his administration would pay $1,000 to migrants who are in the U.S. undocumented to return to their home country voluntarily. The Department of Homeland Security also said in a news release that it would also pay for travel assistance— and that people who use an app called CBP Home to tell the government they plan to return home will be "deprioritized" for detention and removal by immigration enforcement.

"If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest," Secretary Kristi Noem said. "DHS is now offering illegal aliens financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to their home country through the CBP Home App."

Gentile is one of several green card holders to be detained by the Trump administration. Most notably, Columbia University's pro-Palestinian advocate Mahmoud Khalil, another green card holder, is facing deportation after he was detained without a court order in March.

Khalil's case has dominated the news cycle since his arrest, enraging activists who say the Trump administration illegally arrested him. The activist came to the U.S. on a student visa and previously held a green card he obtained last year before it was revoked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He was arrested in his New York City apartment and has been detained without criminal charges. The administration says his activism and public criticism of Israel amid the Gaza war pose a foreign policy threat.

"The foreign policy of the United States champions core American interests and American citizens and condoning anti-Semitic conduct and disruptive protests in the United States would severely undermine that significant foreign policy objective," Rubio wrote in a memorandum last month detailing the administration's basis for deporting Khalil.