Cicero teen describes moment ICE agents detained parents, left her, siblings on side of road
'They're not criminals. They're hardworking people'
CHICAGO -- In Chicago, a teenager is describing the moment United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took away her parents after a traffic stop.
The 19-year-old was left on the roadside, along with her siblings.
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According to the Department of Homeland Security their parents are living in the U.S. without legal permission.
They are now being held in separate detention centers, facing deportation.
Video of the incident quickly spread across social media.
It showed a teenage girl on the side of the road, shielding her younger siblings, as ICE agents arrested their parents and older brother after a traffic stop in September.
Yurithsi Enciso was heard saying, "we don't answer questions."
"That's all I could say. Like no other words came out of my mouth. I was not prepared for that," Enciso said.
The 19-year-old and her 22-year-old brother, Moises Jr., are speaking publicly for the first time about that viral moment that they say turned their lives upside-down.
"My heart was just, it kept pounding, kept pounding. My legs, my hands kept shaking," Enciso said.
She says she was only able to hold it together for her 12-year-old sister and her little brother who was turning 10 that day.
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"I didn't want them to see me crying because that was gonna affect them more. So I just had to make sure that they were calm. 'It's OK; we're gonna be OK,'" Enciso said.
Moises Jr. says that morning he went with his parents to pick up supplies at Home Depot before the family's birthday celebration, when they were pulled over for allegedly making an illegal U-turn. He recalled three ICE vehicles blocking them in and agents surrounding their car, demanding to see their IDs.
"And they just kept asking us these questions, and my dad kept looking back at me, and saying like 'should I answer? What should I do?' And I was kind of like also panicking," he said.
The siblings are awaiting approval for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival status, or DACA.
Their siblings are U.S. citizens.
According to DHS, their parents, Constantina Ramirez and Moises Enciso Sr., are Mexican immigrants living in the U.S. without legal permission.
They have lived in Cicero for nearly 20 years, the family attorney told CNN.
"And I remember that first night, the first thing I wanted to do was sleep in my mom and dad's bed. Because it felt like, if I was sleeping there, I had like a part of them," Yurithsi Enciso said.
That night marked the beginning of a new reality, one where they were suddenly left to care for their younger siblings.
"They haven't been doing good. They're always saying that they miss them whenever we're like about to eat, when they like flashbacks about my mom and dad. They just like go quiet. They're sad," Yurithsi Enciso said.
It's unclear what will happen if their parents are deported.
"I think, we don't know. We don't know if my siblings can stay here with us. Like, we don't know if they have to go to Mexico. It's just a lot of like, insecurity or uncertainty," Moises Enciso Jr. said.
According to DHS, if the parents have a valid claim, it will be heard by a judge.
If not, they will be subject to removal. But their children say they'll keep fighting until their family is together again.
"They're not criminals. They're hardworking people who, I don't know. I consider my parents the best parents. I know they're going to be there for me and support me," Yurithsi Enciso said.
