Trump Supporter Congresswoman Ángela Vergara Condemns ICE After Her Son Is Imprisoned and Chained for 18 Days

A Colombian congresswoman who has spent her career championing Donald Trump's hardline immigration agenda is now begging his administration to free her own son from an ICE detention centre.

Ángela Vergara, of Colombia's Conservative Party, revealed last week that her 22-year-old son, Rafael Alfonso Vergara, has spent more than 20 days locked up at a facility in Louisiana.

She says he has been detained by ICE agents amid the US crackdown on immigration, and the case has thrust the once-loyal Trump ally into an uncomfortable spotlight.

Vergara has also written to Colombian President Gustavo Petro demanding action to help repatriate citizens detained by ICE, drawing sharp criticism from political opponents who note the irony of her party's alignment with Trump.

From Trump Ally to ICE Critic

Vergara founded 'Latinas for Trump' and has openly celebrated the Republican Party and Trump's hardline immigration policies throughout her political career. That record has made her son's detention a lightning rod for critics online.

The case has sparked debate, with critics questioning why Vergara, a member of a party that often backs Trump, came out in defence of immigrants only after her son's detention. She has firmly rejected accusations of hypocrisy.

'Being a conservative politician doesn't mean I agree with human rights violations in Colombia or anywhere else in the world,' she told CNN.

Petro, a left-wing leader who has repeatedly clashed with Vergara politically, has nonetheless intervened on her behalf.

He shared a video that falsely identified a woman as Vergara, an error that fed further confusion over the case, though he has separately addressed her son's detention and asked the Colombian Embassy in Washington to provide consular assistance.

Inside the Louisiana Detention Centre

Rafael was detained not at the border but during a routine stop. Vergara says her son was detained by ICE agents after a routine inspection while he was driving a commercial cargo truck in Louisiana, and that he has been locked up for more than 20 days at the River Correctional Detention Center.

She has said he was detained at 4am on a public road after being identified as an immigrant. The congresswoman has described the facility's conditions in stark terms, recounting to CNN that her son told her he was held with 70 people in a cell, that they went 12 hours without drinking water, and that everyone inside was sick.

The congresswoman's account has not been independently verified by IBTimes UK. She insists her son entered the US lawfully, maintaining that Rafael has been living in the US legally with a work permit and paying into social security, having applied for asylum a year after arriving in 2022 while awaiting a hearing scheduled for 2028.

CNN reported that it had contacted the US Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, for comment on the case. No response had been received by the time of publication.

A Mother's Plea to Bogotá

Frustrated by the pace of the American process, Vergara turned her appeal towards her own government.

On 14 February 2026, she formally sent a letter to President Petro, the Foreign Ministry, and the Fuerza Aérea Colombiana, requesting urgent measures to facilitate the repatriation of citizens who already hold authorisation for voluntary departure but remain detained owing to logistical delays.

The letter outlined three concrete requests.

Vergara requested a military-coordinated transfer, consular-supervised commercial flights for paying detainees, and bilateral cooperation to speed up repatriation.

She stressed that her aim was not to interfere in another country's immigration procedures, but to ensure that once detainees' legal situations are resolved, the Colombian state helps them return home in an organised, rights-respecting manner.

Vergara has framed the appeal as both political and personal, closing her letter by noting that she speaks today as a legislator, but also as a mother, asking only that Colombian children be allowed to return to their country and reunite with their families.

Colombia had already signed an agreement to resume repatriation flights from the US, with the Foreign Ministry indicating roughly one flight per week would run over the following months.

Vergara has pushed for that pace to be increased, and Rafael Vergara's continued confinement has become a rallying point for dozens of Colombian families facing similarly protracted detentions under Washington's toughened immigration enforcement.