Bryan José Rojas Galofre wanted to give his wife a lovely honeymoon to see the beach for the first time and perhaps a glimpse of President Donald Trump, whom she supports.
Their January 2025 road trip from Wisconsin to Miami, however, turned into a nightmare, according to the couple: Rojas, a Venezuelan immigrant whose wife and young children are U.S. citizens, was detained following a stop at a Trump hotel security checkpoint.
He spent more than three months in ICE custody in Florida. Rojas also faced accusations of gang affiliation; he says he feared being deported to El Salvador and lost his stable job and work permit. The family says they’ve lost their house and car, had to deplete Rojas’ 401(k) and are in debt.
“In the end, it was a bad decision,” Rojas, 34, said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo about wanting to take his wife, Socorro Zaragosa, to the Trump National Doral hotel. They wanted to see if they could catch a glimpse of the president, who was there inaugurating a Republican retreat on Jan. 27. Rojas said they had made reservations to stay at that hotel starting the following day.
Zaragosa, 22, a U.S. citizen, was raised in Wisconsin in a family that supports the current U.S. president.
“I’m his fan. I believe Trump is a good president,” she said. However, Zaragosa noted this political loyalty co-exists with the disappointment she feels over the months her husband spent in detention.
“What he is doing to migrants isn’t fair,” Zaragosa said of the president. “What happened to my family wasn’t fair.”
From honeymoon to detention
Rojas had arrived in the U.S. in September 2021, during the administration of President Joe Biden. He turned himself in to Border Patrol, telling them he was fleeing Venezuela, and was released while his asylum application was being processed.
Since then, Rojas had been working at a brake disc factory in Wisconsin, where he earned $29 per hour and was promoted to line supervisor.
He married Zaragosa in September 2024 and said he began the process of seeking to adjust his immigration status through family sponsorship just as they were setting off on their honeymoon.
Rojas and Zaragosa decided to head toward the hotel the afternoon of Jan. 27, 2025. As they approached, they encountered a security checkpoint required to access the premises, where agents from the Secret Service and the Doral police searched their vehicle.
The couple now has two children. The youngest one is 2 months old. Anagilmara Vílchez / Noticias Telemundo Beneath one of their car’s seats, the agents discovered an air pistol, also known as an airsoft gun — a device that fires plastic pellets and is used for sports and recreational purposes. Zaragosa stated that she carried it for personal safety when driving alone, as it bears a resemblance to certain actual firearms. Authorities also found a metal marijuana grinder in the passenger-side glove compartment. The couple was arrested by the local police and charged with one count of possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to use. They pleaded not guilty, and the case remains open.
Rojas claims that when the agents noticed his tattoos — depicting a crown, a Chinese dragon and dollar signs — they separated him from his wife.
“They pulled me out of the car, they checked my tattoos, they started asking if I belonged to a gang, they took photos of me and put me under review to see if I was linked to terrorism,” Rojas said. “At that time, the news surrounding the Tren de Aragua gang was making major headlines.”
Rojas said his tattoos are personal matters and he doesn’t belong to any gangs.
Rojas’ attorney, Tahimi Rengifo, said that at the beginning of the Trump administration, there was a heavy focus on tattoos and their alleged connection to the Tren de Aragua gang, which she said was a “broad generalization — we are talking about young men who got tattoos without even knowing what they meant, and now they are facing serious consequences under this administration.”
In the days that followed, the Department of Homeland Security transferred Rojas to the Federal Detention Center — a jail in downtown Miami — while it verified whether he had ties to Venezuelan gangs. Rojas spent nearly three months on the 13th floor of that prison, where he feared being deported to El Salvador, since many Venezuelan detainees held alongside him were transferred to that country.
Rojas said he and his wife weren’t able to speak to each other for a full month after he was taken into custody.
While Rojas was in detention, Zaragosa was alone with their first child, who was only 6 months old at the time.
“I thought that was it — that my family was over. I thought I would wake up one day and find that I had lost him,” Zaragosa said, “that I would be left all alone with my son.”
Immigration Judge Scott G. Alexander, after reviewing all the evidence, granted Rojas bond on April 18, 2025 — a decision implying that he found Rojas posed neither a danger to the community nor a flight ri…
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