U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have arrested a pastor who lived in Maryland for 24 years on an expired visa, leading to major pushback from his congregation and family, who described him as a “pillar” of his community.
For background, on July 25, 2025, ICE announced in a statement that it had detained Daniel Fuentes Espinal, a 54-year-old father and pastor, who had reportedly overstayed his visa for several decades after traveling to the United States from Honduras. ICE described Espinal as “an illegal alien” and wrote that he was guilty of “a federal crime.”
According to a statement shared with CNN, ICE arrested Espinal on July 21, saying, “Fuentes entered the United States on a 6-month visa and never left in 24 years. It is a federal crime to overstay the authorized period of time granted under a visitors visa.” However, the agency provided no further details regarding the pastor’s arrest.
Moreover, the pastor’s daughter, Clarissa Fuentes Diaz, said that she was extremely concerned about her father and described his arrest to CNN, saying, “My dad was just confused the whole time, and they cuffed him, put him in the back of the car.” She added, “We don’t know everything that people go through, but my dad said he had a different experience than what he’s seen on TV. They were nice to him. They put him in the car, and they drove off.”
However, Fuentes Diaz said that once her father was moved to a facility in Salisbury, Maryland, he and the other detainees were treated “worse than dogs.” Nevertheless, she conceded that when Espinal was moved to a facility in Louisiana, he was doing much better. A close family friend, Len Foxwell, told CNN that Espinal was in “remarkably good spirits.”
Furthermore, Foxwell said that prior to being detained, Espinal had been trying to get a green card “for years,” adding that he had gone through a “bureaucratic nightmare” in the process. She said, “They have felt for years as if the deck is stacked against them, despite having spent a considerable amount of money and time and effort.”
Continuing, Foxwell said that the pastor “is a beloved pillar of the Easton community known across town for providing shelter to those who need a place to sleep, for opening up his home and providing food and clothing to those who are at the most vulnerable point in their lives, and he never expects anything in return.”
In response to Espinal’s detainment, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) accused the Trump Administration of detaining individuals indiscriminately, saying, “The Trump Administration clearly isn’t targeting the most dangerous criminals living in the U.S. illegally – they are snatching up anyone they can find as they pursue their mass deportation agenda and terrorizing our communities in the process.”
Watch coverage of Espinal’s detainment:
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