A Pennsylvania Family Torn Apart: The Story of Carlos, Angela, and America's Immigration System

For 23 years, Carlos and Angela Della Valle built a quiet, ordinary life in a small Pennsylvania town — cutting grass, teaching school, raising a son. Then, on Christmas Day, everything changed at an airport security checkpoint in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and their life has never been the same since.

Angela, a 49-year-old middle school teacher from Downingtown, Pennsylvania, now drives an hour each way through the pine forests of central Louisiana just to spend sixty minutes sitting across a wooden table from her husband. Carlos, also 49, is a Mexican national who has been held in immigration detention for five months. He has been moved through more than a dozen facilities across three states and two U.S. territories. He has not been convicted of any crime.

Their story puts a human face on one of the most contested issues in American life — what happens to families when one spouse is undocumented, and the government comes knocking.

Who Are the Della Valles?

Carlos came to the United States in 1997, fleeing poverty and violence in his home state of Guerrero, Mexico. He said he was assaulted four times by a local drug cartel for refusing to join their ranks. With borrowed money from his grandmother, he paid smugglers to help him cross the border into Douglas, Arizona. He was detained and deported. Unaware that re-entering after deportation is a federal offense — punishable by up to two years in prison — he crossed again and settled in Chester County, Pennsylvania, to be near family friends.

In 1998, he walked into an English as a second language class at a local college. His teacher was Angela. She noticed his warm smile and the way other students seemed drawn to him. A friendship grew into a romance, and in 2002 they were married at the Kennett Square Inn Restaurant and Tavern in Chester County.

They were young and in love, and they did not consult an immigration lawyer before the wedding. It was only afterward that the full weight of Carlos's legal situation became clear. The first attorney they saw delivered a hard truth: Carlos might have to leave the country. They hoped Congress would eventually fix it. They spent the next two decades trying to find a legal path forward.

In the meantime, Carlos kept his head down. He avoided even a traffic ticket. He worked at an adhesive company just three minutes from home and eventually rose to plant manager. He paid taxes. He coached his son's activities and helped neighbors. Angela taught school. Their son Alessandro grew up in a tight-knit community that came to love them both.

Christmas Day at the Airport

For years, the family traveled without incident — to California, Florida, Puerto Rico. In December 2024, they chose the U.S. Virgin Islands. On Christmas Day, after a hike on the scenic Mermaid Chair trail in St. Thomas, they headed to the Cyril E. King Airport for a flight to Miami.

At the TSA screening area, Angela walked through the body scanner and turned around. Carlos was gone.