After Her Father’s Deportation, a Daughter Keeps an Oregon Vineyard—and a Community—Afloat

Alondra Sotelo Garcia watched the headlines—masked immigration agents, sudden arrests, neighbors disappearing—and decided to act before her family was next. As the middle child of immigrants, she began tracking her father’s iPhone, resigned from her remote job, and told Moises Sotelo she would step into the vineyard management company he had built over decades in Oregon’s wine country.

Days after she volunteered to help, Moises called from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland. "You know what to do," he told her in a voicemail. She answered, "We're on it. We're taking care of it." A week later, Moises was detained; despite community outcry and a flood of support, he was deported to Mexico in July. Alondra’s mother, Irma, later chose to join him.

Taking the Reins

With her father gone, Alondra moved back into the family home in Newberg—a town of roughly 25,000 in the Willamette Valley—and assumed leadership of the vineyard management business. She gave up an apartment she shared with a friend and left a logistics job at a dental supply company to learn fieldwork, payroll, client relations and the many small tasks that keep a seasonal agricultural business running.

"Sometimes I don’t even know what the hell I’m doing with work," Alondra admitted. "I haven’t been doing this for 30-plus years like Dad has. I’m not going to bring 30 years of experience into three months." Still, she is determined: "I’m not going to leave this work and lay it to the ground and leave it for dead, because that would be very unfair for him."

Vineyard Life: Labor-Intensive and Seasonal

The family house doubles as the company office, with workers coming and going through the day. The vineyards demand year-round attention: winter pruning, spring shoot training, leafing and mildew prevention, summer sprays and bird-netting, and careful hand-harvests of thin-skinned grapes. Alondra runs operations alongside a former mentee of her father and an office administrator—two people she credits with keeping the business afloat during the most uncertain months.

Legal Questions and the ICE Raids

ICE alleged Moises first entered the U.S. in 2006 and cited a DUI conviction in Yamhill County, Oregon. Local district attorneys told reporters in June they had no record of a DUI, and colleagues said they had worked with Moises since the mid-1990s. Alondra said both of her parents submitted cases to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in early 2025.

In early June, masked ICE agents detained one of the company’s employees while they were on the way to work. A vineyard manager who witnessed the encounter told reporters the agents refused to identify themselves and threatened her with charges for asking questions. Alondra described that moment as "a wake-up call"—the start of a period in which she raced between detention facilities, family obligations and managing a business under stress.

Family Rebuilding and Financial Strain

After Moises's deportation, Alondra tracked him through detention networks, visited a facility in the Arizona desert only to be told staff didn’t know his whereabouts, and eventually traveled to Mexico after his removal. She accompanied him as he obtained new Mexican identity documents and other essentials for resettlement.

Alondra also organized a GoFundMe to help cover immediate needs, managed the family’s finances, and coordinated the purchase and repair of a modest home in Mexico for her parents—work that included hiring electricians, plumbers and construction crews to bring basic utilities and livability to the property. "This house had just about nothing," she said.

With a younger brother just turning 18 and an older brother raising five children, much of the day-to-day responsibility now falls on Alondra. She is paying bills for the household and helping fund her parents’ adjustment to life in Mexico, while also keeping the company’s payroll and client commitments intact.

Wider Economic and Social Ripple Effects

Alondra’s story comes amid broader strain on the wine and agricultural industries. Global wine sales are at their lowest level since 1961, and the Willamette Valley market—home to more than 700 wineries—is highly competitive. Enforcement raids have also disrupted food and farm production: an Oregon cherry farmer reported losing about a quarter of his crop in August, and some California fields went unharvested.

Local leaders warn of long-term impacts. "It will affect every piece of our community the longer this goes," said Yamhill County commissioner Bubba King, noting children afraid to go to school and parents staying home because they cannot leave young children unattended. Miriam Vargas Corona of Unidos Bridging Community said the economic ripple effects will persist as families focus on survival rather than business participation.

Personal Loss and Community Resolve

Alondra has weathered further heartbreak: she had to lay off an employee this fall because of reduced work, and weeks later the former employee’s wife and brother-in-law were deported. "It just absolutely tore me apart," she said.

Still, she finds solidarity among friends and neighbors who face similar disruptions. At kitchen tables across the region, U.S.-born children of immigrants are stepping up—taking over businesses, guiding younger relatives and holding families together amid a fraught enforcement environment.

"Unfortunately, this is where you really have to step up for your dad and be strong for your dad," Alondra told a friend whose father was taken on a Sunday morning while heading out to shop.

This account was co-published with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.