A Kennewick food truck owner is feeling “lost” after her husband was detained during a routine interview about a pending immigration application last week in Yakima.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, officers took Sergio Cedrio Gomez, 42, of Pasco, into custody when he and his wife reported for the interview, which stemmed from her request that he be allowed to remain in the United States while pursuing a green card and citizenship.
Gabrielle “Gabby” Cerdio posted about the ordeal on the Facebook page for Hibachi Explosion, the Kennewick food truck she operates with her husband.
The post drew hundreds of comments and shares, most expressing support for her and her three children.
Cerdio said her husband was taken to the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center, an immigration prison run by ICE. He was able to call her shortly after he was detained and again the following morning.
He had not appeared before a judge.
“He says he’s OK. He’s going to be a macho man and say, ‘It’s OK,’” she told the Tri-City Herald.
Not in ICE database
The Herald could not immediately confirm his status on Friday. His name was not in ICE’s online database of detainees on Friday, though it can take up to 48 hours for the system to update.
Cerdio said her husband encouraged her to tell his story and how they were trying to do the right thing by showing up for the interview.
She called her husband a law-abiding father of three who is doing his best to run the food truck they launched in 2023.
She said he first entered the U.S. illegally in 1998 at the age of 14, when an adult relative brought him from his native Mexico. He has crossed the border several times since then, she said.
His record is otherwise clean, she said.
“He does everything right. My husband is not a criminal. He’s a good man. He’s a family man,” said Cerdio, who is a U.S. citizen.
Together 10 years
The two met in 2014 while working at a Richland restaurant and became a couple a year later. They married in 2022 and have two children, ages 5 and 10 months, as well as his 17-year-old daughter from a prior marriage.
They began working on his immigration status in 2022, the year they married.
In 2023, they filed an I-130 petition with the government, which allows legal U.S. residents and citizens to petition for their loved ones to remain in the country while pursuing green cards and eventually, citizenship.
Filing the application, they believed, would shield him from possible deportation.
There was little progress in their case until this March, when they were notified a decision would occur within two months.
That was followed by a notice of an appointment for an interview with immigration officials in Yakima, set for April 24.
Interviews are unusual, but the couple thought they might need to update the paperwork to reflect the addition of their baby girl.
Their immigration attorney wasn’t available to accompany them. He advised that ICE was taking interviewees into custody.
‘Right thing to do’
They went anyway, figuring that rescheduling it would just extend the process.
They carried photos and other legal documents, including their marriage license, a divorce decree from his first marriage, and birth certificates and other proof of their life together.
In Yakima, they passed through security and checked in. Officials called Sergio and told Gabby to wait. Half an hour later, an officer informed her that he’d been taken into custody on a warrant.
Cerdio said she never knew of any outstanding warrant and never saw one during the Yakima visit. There was no record of a warrant during the application process.
Cerdio said going to the interview as requested was the “right thing to do.”
“I guess it kind of backfired,” she said.
As of Friday afternoon, Cerdio’s Facebook post was shared more than 400 times and drew nearly 700 likes and 173 comments.
She said people can support the family by patronizing Hibachi Explosion, which is open 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Monday to Saturday, at 7425 W. Clearwater Ave., Kennewick.
“Support the business. The business supports me and my kids,” she said.
Go to hibachi-explosion509.square.site.
© 2025 Tri-City Herald (Kennewick, Wash.). Visit www.tri-cityherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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