00:00A local Venezuelan woman reached out to me to share her story and asked to remain anonymous out of fear
00:05of getting taken by ICE agents.
00:07And she tells me she is heartbroken about having to uproot her life after living the American dream she built
00:14for herself here.
00:15I have been living here for 11 years and I love the United States.
00:20At the age of 27, this local Venezuelan left her home country in 2014 and claimed political asylum in America.
00:27Since then, she had been on temporary protected status until last week on November 7th when it expired.
00:34So now I have to come back to Venezuela and start again, you know, in my 40s.
00:40I'm faithful, I trust in God and I'm not going to stay here legal because I don't deserve this.
00:47She became a licensed esthetician, built a beauty business, bought a house, a car and started a life here in
00:54Tampa.
00:54A life here she's willing to leave, starting with selling her company.
00:58My heart is so broken because, you know, say goodbye to my clients and my life here is hard.
01:06She says she is choosing to leave on her own after seeing ICE agents strong crackdown on immigration,
01:13even on those who she says are nonviolent, snatched away from their families.
01:17I'm afraid to come back to my country and I'm afraid to have ICE, you know, when I'm driving or
01:26something.
01:27And I feel like we don't deserve this.
01:31But what she does have, she says, is the choice to leave with her dignity, even if holding on to
01:37it is anything but easy.
01:38I feel sad because I never thought United States can be like this.
01:44I'm agree.
01:45This government, yes, remove people like, you know, like do criminal things.
01:51Okay, it's fine.
01:53But people are working here, legal, like paying taxes, giving job to other person and, you know, like, improve the
02:01economy.
02:01Why I don't, you know, I don't understand.
02:06And it's a question she says she's not willing to find out herself.
02:09I can.
02:10I can be illegal here.
02:11This is no option for me.
02:13And this comes after ICE arrested 230 people in Florida just this week, many who reportedly were violent criminals.
02:21As for the woman I spoke with, all that's left for her is to officially pass the business over,
02:26pack her bags, and pay her taxes before she boards the plane to her new life in Venezuela.
02:32And I'll be sure to follow through on her journey.
02:35Reporting in Tampa, I'm Annette Gutierrez, Tampa Bay 28.
