Man Who Voted for President Trump Speaks Out After Fiancee’s ICE Arrest: ‘He’s Destroying Families’

A Texas businessman who cast his ballot for President Donald Trump says he’s now living with regret after watching ICE agents haul away the woman he planned to marry.

John Gannon has been separated from his fiancée, Yasmin Suarez Reyes, since she was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, according to a report CBS News published on Friday, August 7.

Gannon, a billboard mogul who owns more than 1,000 billboards across the country along with a hotel and restaurant in Mexico, and Suarez Reyes, 45, were trying to catch a flight from Houston to a furniture convention in Las Vegas on Friday, July 24, per the report. After clearing security at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, plainclothes officers closed in on the couple. “After leaving the United room, eight officers, ICE agents swarmed Yasmin and detained her. [They] didn’t tell us why and wrestled her off into a car,” Gannon, 75, said.

Suarez Reyes, a Venezuela-born Spanish citizen, entered the country legally in October 2023 under the Visa Waiver Program, per the report, and filed for asylum before her 90-day window closed. Her attorney Anne Kennedy said her client held a valid work permit and Texas driver’s license, and had no criminal record. Her asylum application remains pending, but her underlying permission to remain in the U.S. expired in January 2024. Marrying Gannon could have opened a path to a green card, but instead she’s being held at the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe, Texas.

“For almost two weeks now, she has been in a physical jail cell, when she has done nothing more than follow the laws of the United States and do what our immigration laws allow her to do,” Kennedy said, per the report.

The detention left Gannon stunned — and questioning the immigration policies he supported at the ballot box.

“I voted for Trump,” Gannon said, according to the article. He also expressed his frustration toward ICE for carrying out the president’s deportation crackdown. “They are picking up law-abiding citizens. They’re destroying families, jobs,” he said.

If he ever got the president’s ear, Gannon said he knows exactly what he’d ask him: “What are you doing?” He continued, “Go after the criminals. We’re all for that. But leave the mom and pops and the kids alone. Man, he’s destroying families.”

CBS News reported that the Department of Homeland Security defended the arrest, stating Suarez Reyes “illegally overstayed her lawful admission” and that “pending applications do NOT confer legal status.