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Pascual Pedro, deported West Liberty resident, speaks out about deportation
Jul. 30, 2025 4:07 pm, Updated: Jul. 31, 2025 9:56 am
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If Pascual Pedro, a 20-year-old man who lived in West Liberty for seven years before he was deported at the beginning of July, could speak directly with elected officials in Iowa, all he would ask them for is a chance.
“I would just like to say to them to think about it, why the people that do the right thing, we’re the ones that get affected,” he said, during a Zoom call with reporters Wednesday. “Give me a chance or something. I would appreciate it, but that’s on them. They would have to think about it, talk about it, if I deserve it or no.”
Pedro moved to the United States with his father when he was 13. His father was deported soon after they arrived, but Pedro was allowed to stay and live with his grandparents in West Liberty on supervised release.
He attended West Liberty High School and played on the West Liberty soccer team, before graduating last year and starting to work, with a work permit, for his grandfather’s siding business.
“I was young when I got there ... I just went to school and did everything right, going to my every year check-in. I have never committed any crime or anything else,” Pedro said. “I was just a kid doing what the law told me to do.”
On July 1, Pedro went to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Cedar Rapids for his annual check-in. He was detained, and less than a week later, he was deported, arriving in Guatemala at 8:22 a.m., central time, on July 7.
“July 1, it was like a normal day for me. I was just going to my check-in with ICE, and I wasn’t thinking that something would happen that day, because I’ve always been a good person,” Pedro said. “When they told me that I was going back to my country, Guatemala, I was in shock, because I never thought about that.”
He said the deportation process was confusing, and he didn’t feel like he received answers from the officers he interacted with while he was moved from location to location.
“I was trying to ask them if I was going be able to fight for my case, or see a judge or something like that, but they just kept ignoring me and ignoring me, and they just told me there's nothing to do about it,” he said.
Pedro stayed in the Muscatine County Jail for the first few days after he was detained. On Friday, July 4, he was moved. He said he made stops in Cedar Rapids, Des Moines and Omaha, before being flown to Louisiana, where he was held until his deportation early Monday morning. He wasn’t able to contact his family after he was removed from the Muscatine County Jail, and they didn’t hear from him until after his plane landed in Guatemala. The first thing he did after landing was find a phone at the airport to call his family.
Since then, he’s been staying with his mother in Guatemala, and he said he’s been continually thinking about why he was deported.
“I'm actually, like, not mad, but I just feel sorry about what's going on, because people like me that, we're actually doing the right thing, actually working for a better life, a better future, we're the ones that are affected by everything that's going on. I'm just thinking about it, the past four weeks here, like, why us?” Pedro said. “We’re actually trying to do what they told us to do over there. We just go to our check-ins, and listen to what the law says to do. It’s hard, and I just think about it, you know?”
In the meantime, in Iowa, Pedro’s family has been working with Iowa City nonprofit Escucha Mi Voz to host rallies and protests asking elected officials to intervene to bring Pedro back to the United States and to the life he built here. On Tuesday, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids, where they asked to meet with representatives from the offices of of Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, and Rep. Ashley Hinson on behalf of Pedro and Noel Lopez, a Muscatine man who was arrested in Washington County last month and may be facing deportation.
Lopez was arrested in June on drug charges stemming from a traffic stop more than a year earlier in which Lopez was a passenger in a vehicle that police said contained marijuana.
According to Lopez’s mother, Marcelus De la Cruz Santos, Lopez may be facing immigration enforcement as a result of the drug charge, but The Gazette was unable to verify whether he has an immigration case pending or what his immigration status is, as the lawyer his family hired was not able to be reached Wednesday.
De la Cruz Santos also said she’s spoken with the driver of the car, who told her he admitted to police that the all of the marijuana found in the vehicle was his own. She doesn’t understand why her son has been charged, or why the charges came so late after the initial traffic stop.
Washington County Attorney Nathan Repp said that the paperwork for Lopez’s case was set aside by law enforcement while they were waiting for testing results on the marijuana, and that “any delay in filing the complaint was inadvertent.”
Protesters Tuesday were told that only five people could enter the federal building, but didn’t want to leave any of the group outside. They asked staffers from the elected officials’ offices to come outside to meet with them instead, but no one came out.
Spokespeople from Hinson and Grassley’s offices said they’d offered to meet with family members of Pedro and Lopez, following the five person rule.
A spokesperson from Ernst’s office, responding after Tuesday’s print deadline, did not specify whether staffers from the office had planned to meet with protesters, but simply sent a statement from Ernst in response to questions about the protest.
“Our nation has laws for a reason, and they play an essential role in keeping Iowans safe. As these cases are fully reviewed, I am thankful President Trump leads the way in upholding the law to protect Americans,” the statement reads.
In the call with reporters Wednesday, Pedro expressed his gratitude for all those who have shown up to support him and other immigrants at protests like the one Tuesday.
“I feel grateful that there are people that actually believe in what's right. I never thought there was going to be a lot of people supporting me, in this moment. I don't have any words,” he said. “They're doing a lot for me, for everyone else, for Noel. I just really appreciate it, for all the support from people. And I just pray for them … asking God to give them more life, because they're doing something good for someone they don't know”
Pedro said that if he ever does get the opportunity, he would love to return to the United States
“If God gave me a chance, and if the people from over there gave me a chance to go back, I would like to go back. Because, like I said earlier, I haven’t done anything bad,” he said. “I’m still a young man. I haven’t done anything bad.”
Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com
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