'Devastated' Family Waits as a Tribeca Waiter Remains in Immigration Lockup

A hallway of the IAH Secure Adult Detention Facility in Livingston, Texas, where Luis Fernandez (inset) is being held. Photos: Screenshot of facility from video by MTC Management & Training Corp.; Donna Ferrato (Fernandez) 

Editor's note: After the article was posted a GoFundMe campaign was established by co-workers for Luis Fernandez.

While Luis Fernandez, the beloved waiter at Tribeca’s Square Diner, remains in a Texas immigration detention center, his family—a “devastated” wife and two children—wait and worry, his lawyer said. 

“He’s a devoted father of two U.S. citizen children, including one with autism who relies on him for daily support,” Pamela Rosero, the Westchester-based immigration attorney representing Fernandez, told the Trib Friday in a phone interview.

Fernandez, 50, a native of Ecuador who has lived in the U.S. for 35 years and worked at the diner for the last seven, was arrested by ICE agents on June 24 at an immigration office in Long Island and sent to three different detention centers before, on June 29, ending up in the IAH Secure Adult Detention Facility in Livingston, Texas, 75 miles north of Houston. 

Fernandez will remain in detention until a bond hearing, which could lead to a temporary release until an immigration court rules on his deportation. Rosero said she is in the process of compiling a case for that hearing, arguing among other things that Fernandez is not a danger to the community or a flight risk. (It was earlier reported, prematurely, Rosero said, that Fernandez might be released sooner.)

“It’s been devastating on his family, especially his son,” said Rosero, who met with the family. “We’re urging ICE to release him so that he can return to them while his case is reviewed.”

A spokesperson for the Fernandez family declined to speak about the case.

According to a statement to the Trib by an ICE spokesperson, Fernandez entered the U.S. illegally and “has been convicted twice for driving while intoxicated directly putting the lives of law-abiding residents in danger.”

“Fernandez has not been granted lawful permanent resident status or any other status or immigration benefit that prevents ICE from detaining and deporting him from the U.S,” the spokesperson said in the statement.

Citing attorney-client privilege, Rosero declined to discuss Fernandez’s legal status or alleged convictions. But she said an immigration judge dismissed a deportation case against Fernandez in 2022.

“Despite that,” Rosero said, “he got a letter earlier this year instructing him to report to ICE.…in Bethpage, NY. He complied and he was unexpectedly detained and transferred to Texas. And he’s been there since.”

“I’ve been hearing from a lot of other people,” Rosero added, “that they’ve been getting these notices in the mail that they have to report to somewhere. And when they do, they get detained. And it sounds like that’s what happened here.”

Co-workers speak glowingly of Fernandez, calling him generous and hardworking, and his seizure by ICE “tragic.”

“We talk every minute about him,” said Irma, a Square Diner waitress who asked that only her first name be used. “He has such a big heart, everybody loves him.” She added, “His problem is he works all the time. Sometimes he goes in the corner and he has to call the children, because he misses them, but he has to work long hours. He’s like the best father I’ve ever seen.”

“You’re feeling sick, you need a day off, he’s there to back you up,” said Fernando Santos, the diner’s manager. “Even after working six days in a row and he needs a day off, if you’re not feeling well or you need a day off, he is there for you. He just has a golden heart.” 

Kristopher Brown, a lawyer and long-time Leonard Street resident who lives near the diner, wrote a letter to the ICE office at 26 Federal Plaza, imploring officials “to give consideration to…the fact that [Fernandez] was trying to abide by all U.S. laws, and release him from ICE custody as soon as possible.” He received no response. 

“Over the many years now,” Brown told the Trib, “I’ve been at Square Diner hundreds of times, I suppose. So Luis is just a part of the fabric of the neighborhood.”