CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. – Frances and Joe Badlotto are collecting letters from people in their community in an attempt to bring their neighbor back home.
“We know Dante and his family for 16 years and consider them like family to us,” said neighbor Frances Badlotto. “Our best neighbor who we trust unconditionally, I beg the courts.”
They say it still haunts them, seeing Dante Lopez, a father of three U.S. citizen children, taken away by ICE at gun point earlier this year.
“How degrading, like he was some form of an animal,” said Frances Badlotto.
“How about they pointed it at his daughter,” added Joe Badlotto.
Lopez, who was in the country illegally, was voluntarily being monitored by ICE as he awaited an assigned date to request asylum claiming threats against his life in his native Peru.
“He owns his own home, he works, he pays taxes,” said Joe Badlotto.
But after President Trump’s inauguration, agents went to his home and took him into custody.
Beyond entering the country illegally, his attorneys say he does not have a criminal record.
“He’s kind, quiet, respectful and always willing to help others in need, and he has even taken in stray animals in the community,” said Frances Badlotto.
Since his early February arrest, last week his request for asylum got denied.
The letters are now part of an appeal on Lopez’s case.
“To deny him his stay in the U.S. is a disgrace, Dante is not a criminal, he’s a man who is fighting for his family for a better life,” said Frances Badlotto. “You know what breaks my heart, the video of him always looking at his ICE bracelet. I keep seeing him doing that because if you only met him once, his soul is so pure.”