Fernando Mejia’s Visa Overstay: 2006 Order, Arrest, and Departure

Fernando Mejia, the Long Island bagel shop manager detained by ICE in June 2025, returned to El Salvador on November 18, 2025, after nearly six months in federal immigration custody. The 40-year-old Salvadoran native, who had managed Schmear Bagel & Cafe in Port Washington and had no criminal record, was picked up on a removal order an immigration judge had issued in absentia in 2006. His attorney succeeded in getting that case reopened, but Mejia, ill and exhausted after being moved through five detention facilities, requested voluntary departure rather than keep fighting.

The 2006 Removal Order Behind the Arrest

U.S. Border Patrol apprehended Fernando Alberto Mejia-Flores near Brownsville, Texas, on October 18, 2005, and found him inadmissible to the United States. He was served with a Notice to Appear on November 15, 2005. When he didn’t show up for his hearing, an immigration judge with the Executive Office for Immigration Review in New York ordered him removed in absentia on January 19, 2006.¹ From that point forward, ICE classified him as a “fugitive alien with a Final Order of Removal.”

Mejia stayed in the country anyway. He settled on Long Island’s North Shore, took a job at Schmear Bagel & Cafe on Main Street in Port Washington, and eventually ran the place. Twenty years went by. He had no criminal record of any kind when agents came for him.²

The June 12, 2025 Arrest

At about 6:30 a.m. on June 12, 2025, Mejia was pulling out of the Schmear Bagel & Cafe parking lot for a delivery when ICE vehicles, in accounts relayed to Newsday, “appeared out of nowhere and converged on him.”² ICE described the operation as a “routine law enforcement action” in the vicinity of Port Washington.¹ He was taken to an ICE processing facility in Central Islip.

The shop’s owner, George, told NBC New York that he thought agents had initially been looking for someone else. “He’s been here a long time,” George said. “Everybody knew him. He was full-time, a good worker — great with kids.”³ Mejia’s daughter, Fernanda, later told the Nassau County Legislature that agents “weren’t even looking for him. They were looking for someone else.”⁴

How Port Washington Responded

Within two days, residents held a “No Kings” rally where protesters chanted “ICE is not welcome here.”⁵⁶⁷

A GoFundMe campaign cleared its $20,000 goal in under a day and eventually raised nearly $45,000 for legal fees, document translations, and support for Mejia’s teenage daughter.⁵² Residents also formed the Port Washington Rapid Response Network, a grassroots group that grew past 400 members, trained volunteers to observe ICE activity, and held weekly vigils at the Port Washington train station.⁸

Customer Jeffrey Siegel called Mejia “a fixture in the community” and said, “If Fernando was there, you knew everything was going to be OK.”²⁹¹⁰

The Legal Fight

Hicksville immigration attorney Bryan Richard Pu-Folkes took the case on a low-cost basis.² He attacked the 2006 in absentia order with what he described as a “very detailed and comprehensive” motion to reopen, backed by “significant corroborating evidence.”¹¹

On July 2, 2025, a court paused Mejia’s deportation for at least a month while a judge considered the motion. “We’re cautiously optimistic. But it’s a tough case, and we’re just going to wait for the judge’s decision,” Pu-Folkes told reporters.⁹ A judge ultimately granted the motion to reopen the case, a significant legal win.²

Six Months, Five Facilities, and a Sick Man

Mejia was moved repeatedly over his nearly six months in custody: the ICE processing center in Central Islip, 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, Delaney Hall in Newark, a facility in Louisiana, and another in Miami. He said that during his first week at 26 Federal Plaza he was denied a toothbrush and shower and fed only cookies and protein bars, and that his room held roughly 50 people. In Miami, he compared conditions to a “chicken farm,” with a thin mattress on a metal bed and three showers and four toilets shared among nearly 50 detainees.²

His health was fragile before any of this started. Mejia has cirrhosis of the liver and had been hospitalized twice in May 2025, weeks before his arrest: once at St. Francis Hospital, where he received four blood transfusions, and for seven days at Northwell Health in Manhasset for elevated blood pressure. In custody he reported bleeding from his nose and blood in his urine. ICE approved an endoscopy at Newark’s University Hospital, but Mejia said he was transferred to Louisiana two days before the procedure, which was cancelled. Fernanda told legislators that ICE refused to give the family his blood work or medical records.²

While at Delaney Hall, Mejia worked in the kitchen for $4 per hour and said he went unpaid for two of the three months he worked.² The facility, operated by the GEO Group under a $1 billion government contract, opened as an immigration detention center in May 2025 and has since been sued by both the State of New Jersey and the City of Newark over conditions including reports of maggots in food, spoiled milk, and inadequate medical attention.¹²

Why He Chose to Leave

Even with the case reopened, Mejia asked to go home. Pu-Folkes put it bluntly: “My client was completely emotionally spent and devastated and broken down from his months in detention, and all the shuffling around from facility to facility, and not receiving the requisite level of medical care and attention that he needed and deserved.” Voluntary departure carries less severe legal consequences for a future attempt to return than a formal deportation order. New Jersey immigration Judge Ramin Rastegar signed the order granting the request on November 10, 2025, and Mejia arrived in El Salvador on November 18.²

Where He Is Now

Mejia is living in San Salvador with his mother Andrea, his father Jorge, two sisters, a brother, and a niece. The family runs a pupuseria called Mamatey. He finally received the endoscopy he had been denied in custody, and his health has improved on a more balanced diet.²

“The thing I miss most is the people,” Mejia told Newsday, adding that “starting from scratch has been a confusion of emotions.” His brother Jorge Jr. said, “It was amazing how so many Americans joined to put out the word about his case.”² As of late 2025, no legal effort to reverse his departure or secure his return has been reported. Fernanda was set to visit him in El Salvador for Christmas 2025. In Port Washington, the Rapid Response Network that formed around his case still holds weekly vigils and has broadened its work across the North Shore.⁸

1
CBS News. ICE Detains Long Island Bagel Shop Manager
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Newsday. Fernando Mejia ICE Bagel Shop
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NBC New York. Long Island Bagel Shop Manager Detained by ICE
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Newsday. Nassau Suffolk ICE
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Long Island Press. Fernando Mejia ICE Reprieve
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PIX11. Long Island Community Demands Justice for Beloved Bagel Manager Detained by ICE
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PoliticsNY. Port Washington Holds Third Rally in Fight Against ICE
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Long Island Press. Port Rapid Response Network
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New York Post. Feds Pause Deportation of Beloved Long Island Bagel Shop Manager
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Newsday. Suozzi Trump Bagel Store Manager Port Washington Fernando Mejia
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Newsday. ICE Deportation Bagel Manager
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New Jersey Monitor. NJ Sues Newark Migrant Jail State Health Inspectors