Newscasts - ‘Trump, please have mercy’: Father of 3 self-deports, leaving family behind
22/08/2025 11:30
Click the following link to watch video: https://share.newscasts.refinitiv.com/link?entryId=1_6yds231x&referenceId=tag:reuters.com,2025:newsml_RW895522082025RP1_K15&pageId=Newscasts Source: 'Reuters - General news videos' Description: A Michigan man and immigrant father of three made what he defines as the most difficult decision of his life: leaving his family behind in the United States and returning to Kenya, not because he wanted to, but because he felt he had no other safe option. Ryan Chang has more. Short Link: https://refini.tv/41dXuvG Video Transcript: It was a painful goodbye between Michigan man Samuel Kangethe and his three children Sunday leaving his family behind in the United States, he took a one-way trip back to Kenya, a country he hasn't called home in well over a decade. Kangethe is among tens of thousands who have now self-deported from the US. It comes in the wake of increasingly volatile Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE raids throughout the country which have resulted in thousands of arrests since President Donald Trump's orders to crack down on undocumented migrants. 39-nine-year old Kangethe first came to Michigan in 2009 on a student visa. Since then, he has earned five academic degrees, bought a house, got married, and is now the father of three children: ages 13, 11, and 5. And up until May 2025, he worked as an accountant for the Michigan Department of Transportation. His immigration case stems from a first marriage that granted him conditional US residency. In 2014, immigration officials accused that first marriage of being fraudulent, which a judge has yet to rule on. But Kangethe believes it leaves him vulnerable to deportation. You know, you open, you go on news, social media, whatever, you see all these news of people just getting rounded up and being taken to El Salvador or just being even detained and all that kind of stuff. Where I'm self-deporting myself to Kenya, it's for safety purposes, because I want to be safe. I want be in a place like, even if I know I'm not here physically with them, I'm in a place that they know where I am, how to get a hold of me. Kangethe's wife, Latavia, says raising their children alone will be hard on her financially. But the toughest part may be the emotional toll. I think we're going to have to do lots of family therapy. You know, a lot of kids are resilient, but I don’t think they cope overnight. Nobody copes with things like this. This is surreal, dude, I don’t know. Now back in Kenya, Kangethe is surrounded by family, his sister and brother-in-law who he grew up with before he moved to the United States. But he says he still hopes and prays for a way to legally return to the US someday to reunite with his wife and children. If I was to talk to President Trump personally, I would tell President Trump, like, hey, I seriously, seriously, even if I have to plead with you, like please hear the cries of these kids. Please have mercy on people like me.