4 May 28 - June 3, 2026 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Despite all that, he has a relatively posi- tive outlook on the experience, now that he is back in Taiwan and living with his parents. “I didn’t pray for 23 years in Texas,” he said. In detention, he learned to pray. Depri- vation taught him to appreciate sunlight and fresh food. The simple things in life. What is really bothering him is the money of it all. When Feng suddenly disap- peared, he failed to pay rent. He’d been in the same apartment since 2006, and when he was finally deported and able to access his resident payment portal, he was met with more than $5,000 in late fines and evic- tion warnings. Of course, by that point, he was no longer in the country. His credit cards had accumulated hun- dreds of dollars in late fees, with interest fees pushing one balance over $2,000. His internet and phone bills were hundreds of dollars over- due, and his bank had shut off his debit card, flagging fraud. Between the time difference (Taiwan is 13 hours ahead of Texas) and Feng’s general uncertainty about everything in his life, it took two weeks after he was deported just to restore access to his bank account. It’s all hard to swallow for someone who “never paid his bills late” in more than two decades in the U.S. “It created a situation [where] I became a debt in society. I was a 21-year Costco mem- ber. Faithfully, I paid my bills,” Feng told the Observer. “I never abused SNAP or [the] Medicaid system. I had an appendix re- moval surgery, and I paid in full by myself. … [After my car accident] I paid all medical, ambulance and lab reports.” As for what happened to his personal items, it’s anybody’s guess. Some of his chef- grade cooking equipment is accounted for, but shipping it across the world would cost a fortune. He might be able to pay for it, though, if he manages to find and sell his car. Friends have told him it isn’t in his apart- ment complex’s parking lot, and calls to his landlord, the police department and his in- surance company have been fruitless. “Car insurance can’t cover it, police can’t do a report for me because I don’t have a valid American phone number anymore,” Feng said. Feng has found himself, quite literally, on an island. Across the U.S., some immigration advo- cacy groups have set up educational pro- grams to help undocumented individuals prepare for how to handle their finances if deported. The Resurrection Project in Chi- cago helps homeowners plan what to do with their mortgages. Dallas’ Vecinos Uni- dos encourages at-risk families to make lists of bills that may need to be turned off, along with the passwords to each account. Other communities are going even fur- ther to prepare. In January 2025, ProPublica reported that a community of Wisconsin Nicaraguans had begun shipping belongings back to their home country in anticipation of their seemingly inevitable deportations. “We don’t have much, but what we do have is important,” one man, Joaquín, told the outlet. Now, on the other side of it, Feng said he believes the process of plucking people off the streets and sending them, months later, to a foreign country without allowing them time to sort out their personal affairs, “is stu- pid.” With the help of his family, Feng has committed to paying off the remaining debts he owed in the U.S., wiping his slate clean for good. He’s paid off the credit card fees and the apartment penalties so far. He bought six T-shirts and a few pairs of jeans from a Taiwanese Costco. He gets around on a moped, and he’s enjoying the slower pace of life and the reunion with his parents. He considers himself fortunate to have a place in Taiwan to come home to; others aren’t so lucky as to know the language or have family in the country they’re sent to. “Sometimes I get a little bit emo- tional about my future. … I want to have faith. I want to believe that people are good, not that people are bad,” Feng said. “I want to believe that I have a good chance here.” Starting Over One day after being deported, Celis was on a 15-hour bus to Mexico City. By a stroke of luck, a family friend was slated for a vacation in the capi- tal and was able to bring a suitcase of some of his valuables, including his Mexican passport and laptop. The 2,000 pesos he’d been handed at the border “didn’t last long,” but they got him to a place where he could fi- nally claim something familiar. Along the border, the Mexican government has launched a program to receive deportees like Celis and reintegrate them into the country. The plan, Mexico Embraces You, was President Clau- dia Sheinbaum’s response to Trump’s “uni- lateral move” of dumping thousands of deportees at the border. The goal is exactly what Celis experienced: If you’re healthy, take a moment to catch your breath, grab a plate of warm grub, then please move along. A similar reabsorption program has been launched in Guatemala to offer a “dignified reception” to individuals who may have fled the country decades ago. “We know they’re worried,” Carlos Ramiro Martínez, the foreign minister, told The New York Times. “They’re living with immense fear, and as the government, we can’t just say, ‘Look, we’re also scared for you.’ We have to do something.” Being detained can cause extreme psychi- atric stress, the American Psychological Asso- ciation reports, and anxiety, depression and PTSD can be compounded when a person is finally deported. Mental health effects are typically more substantial if the deportee mi- grated as a child or if it has been decades since the person returned to their home country. They can find themselves disoriented or iso- lated as locals fail to “understand the experi- ences they had in the United States,” wrote Claudia Masferrer, an associate professor and researcher at the Centre for Demographic, Urban and Environmental Studies of El Cole- gio de México in Mexico City. Celis experienced his fair share of mental health challenges while detained, and he was emotional during his early days in Mex- ico. He traveled to Tijuana, where extended family he’d not seen in over a decade prom- ised to take him in, and was surprised by how metropolitan the city is. Many of the shops carry the same snacks he loved in the U.S., and when he FaceTimes his family he gloats about “the stuff I’m eating that they would probably want to be eating, or the places that they would want to be seeing.” He didn’t realize how few memories he had of Mexico until the country turned out to be nothing as he expected. He was raised with an Americanized view of the country. Now, months later, he is able to joke about how he’d almost expected a hazy yellow fil- ter to fall over the world the moment he crossed the border. Family members in Tijuana helped Celis get an official ID card, which then allowed him to open a bank account. He hasn’t been able to land a job yet, although everyone he meets swears that being bilingual will help him find something. On the bad days, he misses his nephews more than seems bearable. On the good days, he writes. He plans to self-publish a book later this year detailing his four months in ICE custody and the process of finding his footing in a new country. “I’m trying to make the best out of it now,” Celis said. “I knew that eventually I would want to tell [my] story. … It’s really about rebuilding from nothing and starting over. And it’s possible to do it. No matter what mistakes you’ve made, it is possible to continue your life.” ▼ CITY HALL ‘THE NUCLEAR OPTION’ COUNCIL BACKS OAK CLIFF- DOWNTOWN CONNECTIONS OVER CONVENTION CENTER PLANS. BY AUSTIN WOOD D allas City Council members initiated what one called the “nuclear option” on plans to reroute major thorough- fares over the Trinity River on May 19. City staff first presented plans to recon- figure the Jefferson and Houston Street Via- ducts at an April meeting of the council’s Transportation Committee. Unsurprisingly, committee members highlighted the impor- tance of each route in connecting southern Dallas with the urban core, criticized the recommendations and asked staff for a less disruptive scheme at a later date. The updated plan was presented to the committee on Tuesday, and, once again, council members were unimpressed with the proposal from staff. Originally, the routes coming off the bridges were intended to run beneath the rebuilt Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. Reconfiguring the connections from the Jefferson and Houston Street Viaducts has become necessary, staff said, due to the lowering of the future convention center’s footprint to save $597 million. Council members were the ones who originally asked the project’s leaders to cut spending, but on Tuesday, they said the decision was made without un- derstanding the impact on traffic en- tering and exiting downtown. Out of the 15-person council, 12 council members were present for the committee meeting, including five of the six members representing parts of southern Dallas. Non-committee members may attend meetings, make comments and question staff, but are unable to vote on motions. Paula Blackmon, who conceded her district in Lakewood would largely be unaffected by the changes, said the city was jeopardizing resi- dents’ access for the wrong reasons at the meeting. “We cannot cut off half of our city for a customer experience,” Black- mon said. “I mean, they are our cus- tomers too.” The updated plans called for added ramps and a connecting bridge to help offset the impact to the two roadways. Com- mittee members still felt the changes failed to fully reflect council input and community priorities, ultimately passing a motion by Dis- trict 12 Council member Cara Mendelsohn recommending the original convention cen- ter plan to the full council. “We’ve got so many opportunities we’ve missed in southern Dallas. Again, we’ve been talking about this whole transportation thing,” Zarin Gracey, who represents parts of southern Oak Cliff, said. “This is yet an- other opportunity … and we’re missing that opportunity too.” Second Time’s not the Charm The Jefferson Bridge currently carries three lanes of traffic into downtown from Oak Cliff, while the Houston Bridge serves as an exit into the neighborhood via two lanes. In April, staff presented plans to divert all vehicular traffic onto the Jefferson Bridge and create a greenbelt for pedestrian, cyclist and streetcar traffic on the Houston Street Viaduct. One lane of traffic would have been lost overall, which alarmed Oak Cliff residents concerned with their commutes. The more immediately pressing issue, however, cen- tered on the routes’ immediate connections to downtown. At present, traffic reaching the end of the Jefferson Viaduct flows relatively unim- peded onto South Market Street, which then carries it directly to major downtown streets such as Elm and Commerce. The section of Jefferson Boulevard connecting to Market Street will be severed, staff told council members, regardless of any changes to the Tangled in ICE’s Web from p3 Houston Street Viaduct could become a hub for streetcars, cyclists and pedestirians. Emma Ruby
