Arizona Mom Detained and Facing Deportation Following Trump’s Immigration Order

An Arizona mother who left Mexico and entered the United States illegally when she was 14-years-old has been detained and might be one of the first people deported since President Trump’s executive order on immigration and border security went into effect.

Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, a 36-year-old mother of two American teenagers, was taken into custody on Wednesday during one of her regular check-ins with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to The Los Angeles Times.

“We all knew something could be different this time with the new administration,” Carlos Garcia, director of the immigrant advocacy group Puente Arizona, told The Los Angeles Times. “She went in with the lawyer and didn’t come out. That was pretty much all there was.”

When Garcia de Rayos left the ICE building in a van, protesters were waiting, according to The New York Times.

Some chanted, “Liberation, not deportation,” and her daughter, Jacqueline, held a sign that read “Not one more deportation.” Another man, Manuel Saldana, tied himself to one of the van’s front wheels and said, “I’m going to stay here as long as it takes.”

On Thursday, the Phoenix Police Department confirmed on Twitter that seven protesters had been arrested.

“Some protesters at the ICE building have chosen criminal conduct instead of free speech,” the statement read.

On Dec. 16, 2008, Garcia de Rayos was caught using a fake Social Security number number during a raid at the Golfland Sunsplash amusement park in Mesa, Arizona, where she worked. Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies arrested her and several other employees on charges of suspicion of identity theft and using forged documents to obtain employment, according to the outlet.

Under the Obama administration, Garcia de Rayos was allowed to stay in the United States even after a judge issued a deportation order against her in 2013. His administration made it a priority to deport people who were deemed a threat to public or national safety, had ties to criminal gangs or had committed serious felony offenses or a series of misdemeanor crimes.

Now, under the Trump administration, the definition of “criminal alien” is broader than it was before. On Jan. 20, one of Trump’s executive orders focused on deporting undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of — or are believed to have committed — any criminal offense.

“We’re living in a new era now, an era of war on immigrants,” Garcia de Rayos’ lawyer, Ray A. Ybarra Maldonado, said Wednesday, according to The New York Times.

Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe, a spokeswoman for ICE, has not responded to PEOPLE’s request for comment but told the newspaper in a statement that Garcia de Rayos “is currently being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement based on a removal order issued by the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review” in May 2013.

Her daughter, Jacqueline, stood by her side before her mother entered the ICE building with her lawyer.

“The only crime my mother committed was to go to work to give a better life for her children,” she said.