Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Chantell Zarate's husband, Luis Zarate, faces deportation to Mexico after his arrest earlier this month by immigration officials.
- It's got the Ogden woman stressed, worrying what the future holds for her, her husband and the couple's four U.S.-born kids, aged 13-19.
- Luis Zarate, who first entered the country illegally in the early 2000s, will remain in custody "pending immigration proceedings."
OGDEN — As Chantell Zarate's husband sits in jail, potentially facing deportation to Mexico, the Ogden woman doesn't know what to do.
"We're kind of stressing," she said. "We have to decide if we're going to go out there (to Mexico) or stay out here or if I go or stay. But either way, I'm ripping apart ... my family. I have a grandchild."
She's consulted with a lawyer since the arrest of her husband, Luis Zarate, by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on Dec. 2, but he didn't provide much encouragement. The woman, an American, has four U.S.-born kids with Zarate, ages 13 to 19, and two older kids from a prior relationship.
The lawyer "basically told me that he didn't think they could do anything. There's nothing they could do because of the way the laws are set in stone," she said.
As she tries to chart a course forward amid the uncertainty, though, she hopes that by speaking out, the public gets a better sense of the negative toll that the crackdown on illegal immigration is having, at least on some. President Donald Trump has prioritized detention and deportation of immigrants in the country illegally, arguing that they pose a public safety risk and drain public resources.
"I hope people would see what it's really like and how hard it is, and then it would hopefully change minds. I don't know," she said.
Her husband, now 38, came from Mexico to the United States illegally in the early 2000s when he was 14 and was deported back to Mexico in 2006 when he was 19. He subsequently returned to the United States, leading to his latest arrest by immigration officials earlier this month.
She gets it that many in the public don't have sympathy for immigrants in the country illegally, particularly if "they're breaking major laws and they're causing a lot of havoc." An ICE official called Zarate "a criminal alien from Mexico who has previously been removed from the U.S.," referencing a 2006 conviction in Weber County for forgery, a third-degree felony.
On the other hand, Chantell Zarate said, U.S. law doesn't make it easy for would-be immigrants to lawfully come to the United States. As of Thursday, her husband was being held in the Davis County Jail in Farmington, with the ICE official saying the man would remain in ICE custody "pending immigration proceedings."
"I think they need to understand that there's people that are really trying and that it's very impossible to come through the right way," she said. "When you're in Mexico, living there as a child, you just know that you're suffering, and you don't understand there's a right way to come through. You don't know that. You're not taught that. You're just trying to help your family, and that's what he did, he came to try and help his mom."
What's more, Luis Zarate — though fined for numerous traffic infractions over the years, including driving without a license five times — focuses on his work at a Weber County manufacturing facility, not causing trouble, says his wife. His most serious run-in with the law came in 2006, when he was convicted of forgery for possessing a fake Social Security card, according to court records. He received a one-year jail sentence in that case, and his wife said the incident ultimately led to his deportation.
"He's not out doing nothing," just drives to work and comes home, she said. "He doesn't do nothing. He goes to church."
Apart from the June 10, 2006, incident that led to Zarate's deportation — a traffic accident caused by another driver, says his wife — he has pleaded guilty to a range of traffic infractions in 2004, 2005, 2022, 2024 and 2025, according to court records.
'He says it's hard'
Luis Zarate's arrest earlier this month occurred as he was driving in central Ogden. He was pulled over by immigration officials, and they took him into custody. "They said they had been sitting outside of our house watching him. They found him from a fishing license. He applied for a fishing license, and they found it," said Chantell Zarate.
She's unsure what comes next and, in the meantime, has been taking on extra hours at work to make up for the revenue lost by her husband's detention. Even their kids, the ones with jobs, are trying to pitch in. "They're having to pick up a lot of his slack. They're emotionally hurt, but they're trying to keep busy, to keep their mind going. I feel like they kind of went numb," she said.
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Voces de Utah
Looking for more news from Utah's Latino community? Visit our Voces de Utah section for more stories, events and features.Looking ahead, she's leery of moving to the town in the Mexican state of Michoacan where her husband's from to join him if he's ultimately deported. Mexican drug traffickers killed two of her husband's relatives, she said, and she worries she and her kids would stick out.
"We're coming from America, and they're going to know. It's very small. They know when people come. You know what I mean? They know you're not from there," she said.
For now, though, she and her husband are just trying to hold on. She's spoken to her husband by phone.
"He says it's hard. He's struggling, but he's just trying to keep his spirits up. He went to some church singing. He just keeps praying, and he's trying to tell me to take care of myself. He's just more worried about my health," she said.
