Trump Supporter Breaks Down After ICE Detains a Third of His Employees. Now He's Asking the President 'What Happened?'
A Donald Trump supporter and Florida-based small business owner is opening up about feeling the emotional and financial toll of the president's aggressive mass deportation campaign.
Vincent Scardina, the owner of A-Plus Roofing in Key West, voted for Trump in the 2024 election, believing at the time that the Republican's deportation agenda would only extend to criminals, per NBC affiliate 6 South Florida.
But when six of his employees — totaling a third of his staff — were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on May 27, Scardina was puzzled.
"You get to know these guys, you become their friends — just not an employer, but a friend — and you see what happens to their family," Scardina told NBC6 of the men, who were Nicaraguan immigrants. "It's… It's quite a shock."
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told Newsweek that ICE targeted A-Plus Roofing after receiving a report of Scardina's "employment of illegal aliens."
But Regilucia Smith, an attorney for the detained men, attested to their legal authorization to be in the United States, with five of six of them having pending asylum cases.
"Valid work permit, not even close to be expired … again, no criminal records, not here, not in Nicaragua," she said. "They are legally here. They have an authorization to stay."
Though Smith has filed a motion to have her clients released on bond, she told NBC6 that half of them have already been transferred to detention centers in California and Texas, complicating their return process.
Whether or not Scardina's employees have criminal records, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated in January that the administration was broadening its definition of "criminal" to apply to anyone who came to the U.S. "illegally," which Trump claims also includes many asylum seekers.
Asked what he would tell the president now if he was given the chance, Scardina said: "What happened here? This situation is just totally just blatantly not at all what they said it was."
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Scardina now faces the challenge of finding new employees to keep his business running — but the problem is exacerbated by Key West's remote location and other contractor businesses facing the same struggles.
The Trump voter's comments came just ahead of the massive "No Kings" protests over the weekend, which spread to every U.S. state and rallied against Trump's perceived abuse of federal power.
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