Among the guests attending President Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday evening will be 28-year-old Stephanie Quintino, whose parents were deported to Colombia a year ago.
The mixed-status family was among the first to be impacted by Trump’s mass deportation agenda that expanded to detain and deport immigrants living legally and illegally in the country, and in some cases American citizens.
U.S. Rep. Mike Levin (D-San Juan Capistrano), whose district includes parts of Orange and San Diego counties, said he invited Quintino while contemplating the administration’s immigration policies that he views as being cruel and inhumane toward immigrants who have contributed positively to the economy and society.
“I think the first family that I heard about where I recognized the cruelty and the inhumanity of it all was the Gonzalez family,” he said, referring to Quintino’s parents.
Levin said having Quintino present at the State of the Union is a way to put a face to the cruelty of the Trump administration’s deportation policies, which have torn many families apart.
In a phone interview Tuesday, Levin said he was appreciative that Quintino accepted the invitation and that she has advocated for the Dignity Act, a bipartisan proposal to reform the U.S. immigration system. The act would secure the border and provide a seven-year program for legal status without amnesty and mandate restitution payments, background checks and work authorization for people who have been in the U.S. long-term without documentation. Levin helped reintroduce the bill.
Quintino said it was important to represent her parents and other immigrant families who came to the country seeking a better life for their families and children.
“I’m really happy that I get to represent that and just be a voice for so many people who don’t have this type of opportunity,” she said.
Quintino’s parents, Gladys and Nelson Gonzalez, who lived in Laguna Niguel, were deported to Colombia in February 2025 after being detained by ICE during a routine check-in.
The married couple entered the country illegally in November 1989 near San Ysidro, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
The couple’s trek to the U.S. happened at a time when Colombia was racked by armed conflict and political and drug violence that resulted in the deaths of many Colombians, including a popular presidential candidate who was assassinated.
Immigration officials said Nelson Gonzalez, 59, applied for asylum in 1992 but that his case was closed in June 1998 after he failed to attend an interview. In the summer of 1998, an immigration judge also found that Gladys Gonzalez, 55, had no legal basis to stay in the country.
The pair appeared before an immigration judge in March 2000 and ended up seeking an appeal of their cases. Immigration officials did not say if they were allowed to stay while they waited for their appeals to be heard.
The appeals process ended in 2021, and on Feb. 21, 2025, they were detained while a final order of removal was being processed, according to ICE.
Several weeks later, the couple were put on a plane back to their native country. Shortly after, Quintino and her family created a GoFundMe page to raise money for her parents to help them rebuild their lives in Colombia.
Since then, President Trump; White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the chief architect of the immigration policies; and Department of Homeland Security officials have faced nationwide criticism and scrutiny over ramped-up immigration enforcement and arrests in major cities across the U.S.
Experts and immigrant advocates say the Trump administration’s hostile rhetoric against immigrants and what appears to be indiscriminate targeting of immigrants in mostly Latino neighborhoods have sparked widespread protests.
At least three American citizens have been shot and killed by federal immigration agents, including Ruben Ray Martinez, Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Levin said many of his constituents have expressed concerns about ICE, often when raids take place in his district.
He said he has met with regional ICE officials to express those concerns but the agency has rejected suggestions it change how it carries out its enforcement operations.
“So it’s a very difficult time for me to support even a continuing resolution to fund Homeland Security when they’re completely operating outside of the norms and boundaries, both how ICE has acted historically and also what we would expect from any law enforcement agency in this country,” he said.
Levin said 86% of people detained in 2025 have no violent criminal history. That percentage was reported by CBS, which obtained an internal DHS document that showed that less than 14% of nearly 400,000 immigrants arrested by ICE were charged or convicted of violent criminal offenses.
“I visited the Otay Mesa Detention Center last week and there were roughly 1,200 people that were there under ICE custody,” Levin said. “Well over 1,000 have no violent criminal history or are a risk to national security.”
Quintino said it has been sad and difficult not to have her parents nearby.
“We never spent a lot of time apart, ever,” she said. “So, just not being able to be with them in person has been really hard and then being away from their first grandchild has been probably one of the hardest things for them as well.”
