‘Without Him, There Is No Us’: Concord Family Scrambles After Father's ICE Detention in Alabama
Fernando "Brasil" Luiz Da Silva Rodrigues, who has lived in Concord for 25 years, was detained during a return trip from Texas, prompting a wave of support and fears about federal immigration.
Rebecca Rodrigues was in the middle of teaching a fifth-grade history lesson at Concord Academy on Jan. 22 when her worst fears were realized. Her mother was calling, something very unusual during the school day that it immediately felt ominous.
Rodrigues, 25, stepped into the hallway to answer. On the other end of the line, her mother told her that her father, Fernando “Brasil” Luiz Da Silva Rodrigues, had been detained in Mobile County, Alabama, while returning from a trip to Texas.
In an instant, everything shifted. Rodrigues has since created a GoFundMe account to raise money for her father’s legal expenses.
"Our city is in an uproar over his disappearance,” she wrote on the account. “Please help if you can—donate, share, pray. Every second matters.”
The Independent Tribune first reported the story.
Fernando, 56, originally from Brazil, has lived in Concord for 25 years, raising Rodrigues and her siblings, Gabriella and Nicholas. He is widely known in the county as a drummer at Multiply Church, where he has played for the last decade, and as a regular at King of Concord, a local soccer complex where he plays every weekend.
For months, Fernando had been staying home as much as possible, fearful of racial profiling as federal immigration enforcement ramped up. In early November, U.S. Border Patrol agents operated in the Charlotte region under an initiative dubbed “Charlotte’s Web,” during which hundreds of people were arrested.
“When federal immigration officers were in the Charlotte region, we were forbidden to leave the house,” Rodrigues told The Cabarrus Compass.
Fernando, who works removing junk and cleaning houses, has long taken on whatever jobs he could find to support the family, including Rodrigues’ two younger siblings. He also helps care for Rodrigues’ two young children.
“Without him, there is no us,” she said, calling him an “honorable and respectable man.”
But a looming eviction forced Fernando to take a job delivering a used car to a buyer in Texas. His family begged him not to go, but he insisted.
“Life doesn’t stop just because we’re afraid,” Rodrigues said. “Bills are still do, and the rent is still do. He had to go.”
Fernando left on Jan. 21. After dropping off the car, he began the drive back to Concord. The next day, he was stopped at a checkpoint in Alabama and detained.
Rodrigues fell to her knees when she learned what had happened. After alerting her students and asking them to pray for her father, she informed the school’s administrative staff, who told her to go be with her family.
The timing was not lost on her: she had been teaching about the history of the United States at the very moment she learned of her father’s detention.
“Isn’t that funny?” she said. “I teach fifth-grade history of this beautiful country that’s turning its back on my father.”
Rodrigues understands her father’s fear. She is a DACA recipient, also known as a Dreamer, and has lived in Concord for almost all of her life after being born in Brazil. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, created in 2012 through executive order under President Barack Obama, shields certain young immigrants from deportation and provides renewable two-year work permits.
Since the first administration of President Donald Trump in 2017, however, Rodrigues has carried a constant sense of unease.
“I’ve been in this state of panic and fear since his first term of office,” she said.
A graduate of Concord High School and Wake Forest University, where she earned a full scholarship, Rodrigues offered a blunt assessment of the national mood toward immigrants.
“Essentially, given the political climate, immigrants are hated,” she said.
While much of the country’s attention has focused on Minneapolis, where federal immigration officials have shot and killed two American citizens and ICE’s detention tactics have drawn scrutiny, Rodrigues wants people to understand that federal immigration policy is reshaping families across the nation — including in Cabarrus County.
“It’s hitting all our communities, our families, people that we love,” she said. “It’s not just strangers on the Internet, it’s people that we know and that we love.”
Since her father’s detention, Rodrigues has learned little about his case, though the two have spoken each day.
He told her he did not understand why he was stopped, other than what he suspected was his accent. “‘I don’t know, maybe my accent,’” Rodrigues said her father told her about why he thinks he was stopped and arrested.
She learned that he was transferred from the sheriff’s department and, to the best of her knowledge, is currently in an ICE detention facility somewhere in Alabama — though that could change without notice.
“It’s terrifying,” she said of not knowing her father’s exact location.
Fernando was held without food for the first 48 hours of his detention. He has high blood pressure, yet has not received his medication, Rodrigues said. On Monday, officials finally checked his blood pressure for the first time, but still did not provide medicine.
The last time Rodrigues spoke with him was around 9 p.m. on Monday.
Although he is afraid, Fernando remains grounded in faith.
“God has always favored my father in more ways than I can count,” Rodrigues said. Her father, she added, still believes that God is present and working, even now.
Rodrigues shares that unwavering faith. She and her family have secured a legal team to fight for Fernando’s return to Concord.
The GoFundMe, which has raised $17,000 in only five days, will cover legal fees and essential expenses. Still, Rodrigues said the family will need more support.
“I need to find the best of the best to make noise to pull him out,” she said.
The community response has overwhelmed her. Neighbors, friends and strangers have donated and spread the word. Fernando knows about the GoFundMe, Rodrigues said.
“We are coming for you Pai,” she said, using the Portuguese word she calls her father. “It’s not just me it’s the whole community coming for him.”
She urges the public to keep Fernando’s story alive.
“Say his name, he is somebody, he is important,” Rodrigues said. “His story is alive and on fire every day until he’s home. It’s on fire.”
If people want more information, or would like to talk with Rodrigues about how they can further help, her email is Rebeccarodrigues1122@gmail.com.
Very grateful for local journalism that enables this type of story to be shared so we can support our community. Thanks, Chris.