Long-time Salt Lake resident deported to Mexico despite outcry by family and friends

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Julio Irungaray Sr., a long-time Utah resident, has been deported to Mexico despite the outcry of family and friends soon after his detention.
• U.S. authorities say immigration officials ordered his removal in 2022.
• He's looking into options that would allow his return, but otherwise trying to settle into life in Mexico.

SALT LAKE CITY — A long-time Salt Lake City resident originally from Mexico has been deported notwithstanding the public outcry his detention prompted from family and friends and their efforts to help him.

Julio Irungaray Sr., who had lived in Utah for more than 35 years, was detained on June 24 outside his home by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. His two children and others spoke out at a press conference shortly thereafter to call attention to the man's case, saying they'd press for his release. But Alec Marshall, a family friend, said this week that Irungaray Sr. — who faced a deportation order dating to 2022, according to U.S. officials — has been removed.

Immigration authorities "did move pretty fast and ended up deporting him to Guadalajara, Mexico," said Marshall, who helped organize the June 26 press conference. Authorities removed Irungaray Sr. only four or five days after his detention, and he's now in the Mexican state of Durango, where he's originally from.

Other immigrant detainees in Utah whose supporters have publicly spoken out to call attention to their cases have been released and allowed to pursue efforts in U.S. immigration courts to legally remain. Irungaray Sr., by contrast, now finds himself separated from his Utah family members and trying to make a go of it in a country he hasn't seen for 35 or so years. He's among the 605,000-plus immigrants who were in the country illegally that the administration of President Donald Trump says have been removed in his second term as part of his crackdown on illegal immigration.

Marshall said Irungaray Sr.'s family members are looking into potential options that would permit his return to the United States, but that he is otherwise trying to settle into life in Durango. His U.S.-born son, Julio Irungaray Jr., who didn't respond to a query seeking comment, recently visited him in Mexico.

"He has cousins and relatives down there, but ... just hadn't seen them in a while," Marshall said. "But luckily they were supportive and welcomed him back with open arms, which is really good."

Irungaray Sr. plans to look for a job — in Utah he had worked at a Mexican restaurant and a theater — and has started playing on a soccer team for players 50-years-old and up.

"He's getting connected with his community, but he really misses his family, obviously, and his family really miss him," Marshall said. "He's been able to get the things that he needs just to be able to survive and get by. But there's obviously a big hole left from his separation from his family."

Irungaray Sr. was the main breadwinner in his home in Salt Lake City, with Irungaray Jr. and his daughter Chantal studying at the University of Utah. A GoFundMe campaign for the family has raised more than $22,000. "They're definitely very sad and they're also very aware of how helpful and supportive the community's been. They are doing OK, mainly because of the community support," Marshall said.

Despite the heartache of his family, the Department of Homeland Security said soon after news of Irungaray Sr.'s detention publicly emerged that immigration authorities had ordered his deportation in 2022. "Under President Trump and (DHS) Secretary (Markwayne) Mullin, criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in our country," the DHS said at the time.

A DHS statement further noted that Irungaray Sr. had a history of convictions for drunk driving, though his son said the incidents in question occurred 20 or more years ago. His dad has been sober for 17 years, his son said, and successfully expunged the cases from his court record.

Given the experience, Marshall said Irungaray Sr.'s wife has been talking with the daughter of another man detained by immigration authorities about organizing family members of people rounded up by ICE officials. "A lot of people go through this with little to no support, and these sort of things really can completely erode any stability that the family has," Marshall said.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

Related topics

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Tim Vandenack

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Tim Vandenack covers immigration, multicultural issues and Northern Utah for KSL. He worked several years for the Standard-Examiner in Ogden and has lived and reported in Mexico, Chile and along the U.S.-Mexico border.