Residents said it felt like a scene out of a dystopian movie. But for a small agricultural community in the Willamette Valley, the early hours of June 12 were marked by a sight increasingly common across the United States.
Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, are appearing in virtually every type of municipality, from major cities like Los Angeles to quiet towns like Newberg, Oregon. The range is striking: some are decked out in paramilitary gear, while others appear to have dressed off the racks of discount department stores. They arrest people outside court houses, homes, detention centers, workplaces and even places of worship — including elected officials and judges.
And on June 12, they were in a small Oregon town. That morning, agents singled out Mexican national and business owner Moisés Sotelo, 54. They detained him just outside his church, pending immediate deportation. Under the cover of dawn, and for no reason discernible to his family, agents apprehended Sotelo after he started his day at 5:30 a.m.
Sotelo does not fit the profile of a blood-thirsty invader that federal officials describe as the “enemies within.”
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Until June 12, Sotelo lived a classic American dream. He emigrated to Oregon in the 1990s and built a career in the wine industry from the ground up. Family and community members describe a respected professional and beloved community member. A family man who serves as an assistant voluntary pastor at his church.
Sotelo has been a fixture in wine country for decades. The Oregon Wine Board recognized him in 2020 with its annual Vineyard Excellence Award. And in 2024, he launched Novo Start Vineyard Service, which employs 10 people full-time.
During those early days in the 1990s, he met Anthony Van Nice, owner of Woodshed Winery in nearby Dundee. Back then, Van Nice was getting started in the wine business with both of them working at the iconic Archery Summit Winery.
“Moisés showed me the ropes, and from then on we became friends,” Van Nice said.
When rumors of ICE raids started to spread through the small community, confusion flowed. Without even a notification of his detention, Sotelo’s daughter Alondra was able to track her father’s phone to the Portland ICE processing facility on South Macadam Avenue, according to Stephanie Hoffman, a spokesperson working with the family. There, she was able to talk to him briefly.
“He was in chains at his feet, shoelaces were taken off, his belt was off, he didn’t have his ring, he didn’t have his watch,” Alondra told The Guardian. “Everything was taken from him.”
Federal agents then ferried him to an ICE detention center in Tacoma, Washington, the Northwest ICE Processing Center, operated by a private contractor, the GEO Group. Later, he was moved to the Florence Service Processing Center in the Arizona desert, operated by another private contractor, Akima Global Services.
ICE didn’t communicate any of those movements to Sotelo’s family or his attorneys, according to Van Nice. When Alondra attempted to visit him in Arizona, she found out upon arrival that ICE had moved him back to Tacoma.
According to Hoffman, Moises started his visa proceedings during the Biden Administration. But as other people with active visa proceedings have found, under this administration, a pending visa does not equal protection from deportation. In this case, Moisés discovered this reality not with a certified letter in his mailbox but with a detail of armed feds surrounding his truck.
Post-detention, ICE argued Sotelo had entered the U.S. illegally in 2006. It also claimed, without evidence, that he had a DUI conviction. Kate Lynch, Yamhill County district attorney, has refuted the existence of any records to that end. Sotelo’s family and friends also denied the charges categorically and have reaffirmed that he first came to Oregon in 1994 — not 2006, as ICE claimed. They vow to fight his deportation with every legal resource they can muster.
Messages of solidarity and support have poured in from the community, from cellars and vineyards, to local politicians like Bubba King, Yamhill County commissioner. King told The Guardian that Sotelo is a “pillar of the community.”
The impact of mass deportation on the agricultural sector in the United States remains to be seen. According to the Center for Migration Studies (CMS), undocumented workers constitute 45% of the agricultural labor force, while foreign-born workers are estimated to make up 86% of the agricultural workforce.
“When a large part of the workforce is afraid to come to work or of being detained, everything is affected,” King said.
Organizations like Unidos Bridging Community, a community-based nonprofit aimed at supporting the civil rights of Latine and immigrant communities, developed a rapid response project in Yamhill County to support access to information. The organization wants people to understand their rights when stopped by immigration enforcement and how to access legal counsel.
“Our overarching goal is prevention of family separation and deportation,” a spokesperson for the organization said. “We aim to reach and support individuals before any detention occurs. Yamhill County community members can call to report suspected ICE activity, receive referrals for legal advice or representation, access immigration-related resources, and get support creating family preparedness plans. We also host monthly Know Your Rights workshops to empower our community with the knowledge they need to navigate uncertain situations.”
Overwhelmed and facing a maze of legal battles, Sotelo’s family is calling on community support. Alondra, born and raised in Newberg, has taken leadership in representing her family through these difficult times.
Family and friends launched a Gofundme campaign to cover legal expenses and travel costs to visit Sotelo at ICE facilities in Washington and Arizona, and to help the family meet immediate needs like rent and groceries. So far, the campaign has raised over $142,000 of the $175,000 target with over 2,000 donations.
The fund is also intended to keep Sotelo’s small business afloat throughout this ordeal. Sotelo’s protégée, Victoria Reader, is currently running Novo Start, according to Hoffman. Reader came to Oregon two years ago with a dream of working in Oregon’s famed wine industry.
“He took me under his wing and guided me and made Oregon feel like home.” Reader said.
Reader is co-organizer for the Gofundme campaign, alongside Sotelo’s daughter Alondra, and local winemaker Sara Specter.
A week before Sotelo’s detention, Reader was in the car with another man when ICE agents swarmed the vehicle. She witnessed firsthand how the masked agents took a man from her crew into custody.
“They didn’t identify themselves,” Reader told The Guardian. “They just came out. They didn’t even say anything. They just started trying to open the doors”.
Sotelo’s friend, Anthony Van Nice, said he drove to see him in Tacoma a few days after his detention. There, he discovered that agents had already moved Sotelo to Arizona. Van Nice said he had been checking the government’s detainee tracking website, but the website didn’t reflect the move until after he had arrived.
Van Nice and the other families he spoke with, including a national guardsman looking for his wife, described overcrowding, inadequate sanitary infrastructure and spoiled food.
The descriptions matched those described by detainees to Street Roots in previous reporting.
“These are prison conditions,” Van Nice said.
He said he also tried to speak to an ICE agent, but had little luck.
“The ICE officer told me they are under no obligation to tell the family or the attorneys of the detainees that they have been apprehended, or that they’ve been moved to another state, to another facility, or that they’ve been deported,” Van Nice said.
The ICE official dismissed his concerns about the ethics of such harsh conditions, Van Nice said, telling him, “Well, that’s the way it is.”
“Then he shuffled me out of the office as fast as he could,” Van Nice said.
Van Nice said the chilling answer cut deep.
“Even if you support stricter immigration policies, hopefully we can all agree that we need to treat people with dignity and respect,” he said. “These aggressive tactics and family separations need to stop. We cannot treat people like they are disposable.”
ICE did not respond to requests for comment.
Without much information, family, friends and the tight-knit wine community are left wondering why the government would take such forceful action in their small community. Why would a prominent face of the local wine industry seemingly wind up on some sort of federal deportation list? Was he just another name in a long line of pending visa cases for agents with a sudden green light for removal? Was it a mistake, actions taken on inaccurate information? Or was Sotelo’s notoriety the reason — to send a message of intimidation?
Whatever the reason, community members like Van Nice are vowing to fight back.
“In the Willamette Valley, we all work alongside each other every day,” Van Nice said. “Immigrants are our colleagues, friends and neighbors. We will not stay quiet as we witness federal overreach and violations of constitutional rights that are designed to instill fear in this marginalized, yet vital, community.”
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This article appears in July 2, 2025.
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