The wife of an Ecuadorian man detained by federal immigration agents says she only learned of his arrest after a journalist showed her courtroom photos of the moment he was taken into custody.
Marlon Isaias García Morales, 37, a father of two from Ecuador, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at a downtown courtroom in New York after a scheduled immigration hearing on July 3 as part of his ongoing asylum case, his wife said.
As individuals waited for their hearings, García Morales was moved between two rooms before being brought into the courtroom when the judge arrived.
During this time, his wife, Jessica Patricia Miranda Navarrete, was with her children and did not witness her husband being detained.
“Everything was calm until ICE showed up, and the atmosphere got very tense,” she told Newsweek.
After noticing that people were leaving the courtroom and her husband was not among them, a woman offered to check on his status. When she returned, she informed Miranda Navarrete that he was no longer there.
“A journalist saw me panicking and said, ‘Come here, see if you can find your husband in any of these photos,'” Miranda Navarrete said.
“She showed me the photos, and that’s where I saw my husband being captured. ICE took him,” she said.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed García Morales had been arrested during his court appearance in a statement to Newsweek.
“Marlon Isaias Garcia Morales, 37, an illegal alien from Ecuador, entered the United States near Paso Del Norte, Texas, on December 19, 2022, and was RELEASED into our country by the Biden Administration. ICE arrested Morales on July 3, 2025,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Newsweek.
“This Administration is once again implementing the rule of law. Biden chose to release millions of illegal aliens, including criminals, into the country and used prosecutorial discretion to indefinitely delay their cases and allow them to illegally remain in the United States. Now, President Trump and Secretary Noem are following the law and resuming these illegal aliens’ removal proceedings and ensuring their cases are heard by a judge.”
“The judge had scheduled his next hearing for February 2026, but ICE took him anyway,” Miranda Navarrete said.
“They didn’t give him a reason, they didn’t say,” she said.
García Morales is currently held at Delaney Hall Detention Facility in New Jersey, according to the ICE database.
The detention has devastated the family, Miranda Navarrete said.
“Emotionally, we’re destroyed. My 8-year-old son got sick because of his father’s absence. He didn’t want to eat, and he cried. He’s doing a bit better now, but only because he thinks in the morning that Dad is at work. But in the afternoon or evening, everything is sad again. He starts to cry.”
Miranda Navarrete is currently unemployed and is raising money for legal costs through GoFundMe.
García Morales’s arrest comes amid a hardline immigration crackdown under President Donald Trump, whose administration has prioritized detaining individuals who entered the United States under the Biden-era “catch and release” policy. As part of its approach, the administration reversed previous measures installed by the Biden administration and reshaped the national policy surrounding immigration.
Trump directed his administration to push forward with aggressive mass deportation plans. During the 2024 campaign, Trump officials pledged to focus enforcement efforts on serious criminal offenders. While serious criminals and some gang members have been detained, Newsweek has also documented instances of nonviolent immigrants being swept up in the immigration raids.
In January, the Department of Homeland Security reversed its previous restrictions on ICE activity in sensitive locations such as courthouses. The earlier policy had limited enforcement in sensitive locations, such as courtrooms, to allow individuals to access essential services without fear of being detained.
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