NEW YORK − A Bronx mother whose eldest son was one of the first New York City students detained by federal immigration agents is Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's personal guest to President Donald Trump's State of the Union, USA TODAY has exclusively learned.
As Trump is set to tout his achievements at his Feb. 24 address to Congress, including his administration’s aggressive approach to immigration enforcement in the last year, Raiza Contreras is trying to show its effects on her three children and other migrant families, she said in an interview.
"It's an opportunity to at least bring attention to the case and many other injustices happening," Contreras, a 41-year-old who immigrated from Venezuela, told USA TODAY in Spanish. "Because it’s not just me.”
Her son Dylan, 21, was detained when he attended a routine immigration court hearing in May. Dylan, who his lawyers said has no criminal history and entered the country through a Biden-era program in 2024, is held in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Pennsylvania.
Contreras − who works as a carpenter’s assistant, in food delivery and was recently caring for older people − is traveling for the first time to the nation’s capital.
