Denied access to life-saving medical care, mother pleads for her husband’s release.
By Ramon Lopez
Original Air Date: September 26, 2025
Host: A Bradenton family has gone public about how deportation put a mother’s life in danger. Ramon Lopez was at the family’s press conference at a Sarasota church.
Ramon Lopez: Immigrant rights community organizers and church members gathered at the Church of the Trinity MCC in Sarasota yesterday to call for the release of Eddy Macario. He’s being held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Pompano Beach for being undocumented.
Eddy Macario, Benita Cantero, and their two children
He is the husband of Benita Cantero and father of two. As reported exclusively by WSLR News last week. Eddy, a house painter from Guatemala, on May 27, while on the way to work, was pulled over in Port Charlotte by a Charlotte County deputy sheriff for a minor traffic infraction. Without a driver’s license, he was arrested, then turned over to ICE agents.
To make matters worse, Bradenton’s Benita Cantero, who is also undocumented, desperately needs a liver transplant. She had to stop cleaning houses two years ago as the auto-immune cirrhosis worsened.
She needs her husband’s help caring for the kids. She needs medical coverage to pay for her treatment and expensive drugs. A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help raise cash for coverage.
Macario’s hardship release will depend on the outcome of his next hearing in front of an immigration judge who will decide whether or not Eddy will be deported to Guatemala.
Ruth Beltran is a community organizer with the Tampa Bay Immigrant Solidarity Network and host of WSLR’s Ruthless Truth. She lays out what’s on the line for the immigrant family.
Ruth Beltran: We plead for Eddy to be returned to his family. They need him now more than ever. His wife needs him, his children need him, and his community needs him. So please help us bring Eddie home and also find proper medical care for Benita. Like I mentioned, Benita is not in the transplant list even though she needs to be. The only reason she is not on that list is because she doesn’t have the proper documentation. How shameful is that, that we can allow a young mother to possibly die because of a lack of paperwork? Where is our humanity? Where is the humanity of this government? We know that they don’t have humanity, but we the people do have humanity, and we do care for our neighbors, so we need to raise our voices and demand justice. In terms of Eddie coming home—that’s what justice will look like—and also Benita receiving the medical care that she needs, including a new liver, if that’s what she needs to survive.
RL: The church press conference was conducted as ICE operations remain top news nationwide. At the ICE complex in the Everglades dubbed Alligator Alcatraz, there are about 800 individuals and detainees missing from the ICE online database. Families say they are unable to locate their loved ones.
Immigrant rights organizer Ermelinda Velasquez, with El Pueblo Unido Tampa Bay, says this ain’t right.
Ermelinda Velasquez: People are being detained and withheld and not being placed on the ICE detainee locator system. Personally, I have a person that’s been detained on August 21, and we have yet to be able to pull up her information on the detainee locator so that a lawyer is able to go and try to represent her.
RL: Benita Cantero is holding out hope that Eddy will be coming home soon.
Benita Cantero
Benita Cantero: Due to my [???], I was forced to leave my job. It’s too difficult for me. I have tried to stay positive and move forward. [???] My husband was detained and has been in ICE custody [???] to May 27. The situation has been very stressful and painful for our family. Since I am unable to work, our financial situation has become very complicated. Therefore, today, we are asking the community for help. Please join our call for the release of my husband. Right now, we are waiting for my husband’s final hearing with the ICE judge. Today, I ask ICE to release my husband so he can return to me, the children, and our family and seek to work. I can’t take care of myself or my children. We’re good, hardworking people. We need my husband at home to take for our family and I can get a new liver.
RL: This is Ramon Lopez for WSLR News.
WSLR News aims to keep the local community informed with our 1/2 hour local news show, quarterly newspaper and social media feeds. The local news broadcast airs on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6pm.
