Editor’s note: This story uses only Jeremy’s first name because he has not yet been deported or self-deported. Jeremy asked not to be photographed for this story. 

Everything around Jeremy signaled a life in motion. In an apartment above Syracuse Soapworks, the floors had been ripped up, a renovation imminent. 

Jeremy’s weaving loom sat against the wall behind him. The table to his right had two sewing machines, one with three spools of thread. Three dog bones and a toy lay on the floor. Water filled a bowl. 

He sunk into a soft leather couch, his head resting on his hand. He teared up. He turned over thoughts about his lapsed visa, the Defense of Marriage Act and the rapidly changing United States, where 20 years ago he arrived from France. 

He retraced those steps all the way to Tuesday morning: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents followed Jeremy and his husband Rick Reina to Syracuse Soapworks, a business that Rick owns. Jeremy slipped into the apartment above the business and locked the door before the agents could detain him. 

The attempted apprehension was enough to deal with, but he also processed: Everything he had in motion now stops. 

On Tuesday, Jeremy and Rick stopped concerning themselves with the apartment renovation and their new home in Liverpool and started coordinating Jeremy’s self-deportation. Sen. Rachel May, Hairanoia owner Michael DeSalvo, Rick and a friend called lawyers and strategized on how to help Jeremy self-deport to France.

“We have to go start over,” Rick said Tuesday, as he sat among the group of friends and advocates above Syracuse Soapworks.

“I’m scared,” Jeremy repeated Tuesday afternoon. 

He, his family, and the support system learned Tuesday that the campaign of deportations in the United States will not stop — even on a federal holiday. ICE’s attempt at detaining Jeremy provided further anecdotal evidence that, while President Donald J. Trump has said his administration would deport violent criminals, there are exceptions.  

Jeremy’s case follows in a long list of others in which federal law enforcement officers have attempted to remove immigrants key to their communities, including Chinese restaurant owners in Nedrow, Owego and Camden. 

Jeremy has no crimes to his name in digitized court records kept by Onondaga County. May’s presence was a testament to his and his husband’s roles in the community. DeSalvo talked to Mayor Ben Walsh and Rep. John Mannion about the attempted arrest. ICE’s pursuit of Jeremy will close Syracuse Soapworks, a business many loved, Rick said. 

Everyone in the apartment above Soapworks felt the uncertainty of what would soon happen, but Rick was adamant about the couple’s future: Eventually, they’ll both head to France. 

“I want my husband on a plane right now,” Rick said.

On Tuesday morning, Rick and Jeremy left their Vine Street home in Liverpool just after 9:30 a.m., early by their standards. They were headed for Syracuse Soapworks, located in Syracuse’s Hawley-Green neighborhood. 

What felt like a normal morning changed when Rick noticed a car parked near their house. He felt the people in the car were watching them. 

He pulled out a pair of binoculars, and the car drove away. 

As Rick and Jeremy drove on Old Liverpool Road toward the city, a black SUV slowed down, allowing Rick to pass the car, Rick said. The SUV appeared to follow them, Rick said.

Worried, he took extra turns on his way to Syracuse Soapworks, he said. Rick parked the car behind the back door to the shop. 

“I saw somebody crossing the road,” Jeremy said. “I knew to just come in and lock the door.”

The ICE agents pulled a black Ford Expedition into the lot with their lights on. Several ICE agents approached Rick and asked to talk to Jeremy. Rick told the agents he would talk to Jeremy, went into the apartment and never came back down. 

The ICE agents appeared to leave, Rick said. It’s unclear why the ICE agents left, however, ICE must have a criminal warrant signed by a judge, which would allow them to enter private property without consent. Overstaying a visa — as Jeremy had done — is not a criminal offense. ICE agents typically bring an administrative warrant or an order for removal of a person who has violated immigration law, but that does not allow them entry to private property, legal experts say. 

Video captured by Syracuse Soapworks’ Ring camera appears to confirm the end of Rick’s account. An ICE spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents talk to Syracuse Soapworks owner Rick Reina as his husband Jeremy hides in an apartment above Soapworks. Credit: Courtesy of Rick Reina

For much of the rest of the day, Jeremy holed up on the second floor in an apartment he and Rick once called home. 

They called the Consulate General of France in New York City. They called DeSalvo, who amassed a group of friends, colleagues and customers to stand watch outside Soapworks in case ICE agents returned. 

Those friends were pulled from about two decades of Rick and Jeremy doing business — first out of a home in the Westcott neighborhood, then out of a building on West Fayette Street and finally out of the building at 226 Hawley Ave. in the Hawley-Green Neighborhood. 

Building the business meant building a life and community. When Jeremy came to the United States from France, he visited Niagara Falls and Provincetown, Massachusetts. “Normal stuff,” Rick said.  

Jeremy’s first marriage in the United States, the one through which he earned a visa, broke apart. Rick and Jeremy married once gay marriage became legal in New York in 2011 and federally in 2013. 

At some point, however, Jeremy’s visa lapsed, and he chose to overstay the visa. An attorney advised the couple to not file paperwork to change his status so as not to attract the attention of immigration officials. 

“We’ve been hiding in plain sight,” Rick said. 

They continued to build. Rick and Jeremy in 2021 bought a house on Vine Street in Liverpool. The home, about 200 years old, had a post and beam foundation. They jacked up and redid the foundation, installed cabinets, ripped up and replaced the floors — a top to bottom gutting, they said.  They planned this year to have their first Thanksgiving and Christmas in the renovated home.

The couple currently has two dogs, Jack and Cooper from Texas, who they rescued and adopted two years ago. They’ve been together so long that Jack and Cooper replaced two dogs the couple previously owned. Rick and Jeremy also own a cat, who is sick and likely won’t be able to make the eventual trip to France. 

The apartment Jeremy sat in Tuesday was in transition. The couple moved out so they could move into the Vine Street home in May. The floors in the apartment were ripped up because they planned to renovate it and eventually rent the apartment and sell the building.  

Jeremy is a weaver, particularly of towels. His tools were scattered across the apartment and included the loom and the sewing machines. Materials for Jeremy’s craft were packed into two plastic containers. 

“We built a life here,” Rick said. “We didn’t think it’d get this ugly this fast.” 

The couple has been planning an exit for a while now. ICE’s visit may have been a shock in the morning, but it accelerated a plan already in motion. France was always the destination.

“We thought that we would be so far down the list because he doesn’t have a removal order, doesn’t drive, no traffic infractions, no criminal record. This bullshit about just going after criminals is just that,” Rick said. “Bullshit.” 

Jeremy thought about all the work ahead of Rick, who now has to tackle the bulk of it alone, and sobbed in the leather chair. They already submitted paperwork to have their marriage recognized in France. But they have to arrange for their house, the building and their business — which Rick said will never open again — to be sold. 

They have to arrange for their dogs to make the trip to France with them. 

Rick’s mother is in her 80s. He’s her primary caretaker. It was too early Tuesday to know who would take care of his mother when Rick eventually leaves. 

About 90 minutes into a conversation with a reporter, Jeremy stood up from the couch for the first time. 

He recalled a piece of family lore. 

Jeremy’s grandmother grew up in France, when it was occupied by the Nazis, he said. His grandmother’s cousin became part of the French Resistance, a collection of groups fighting the Nazi occupation, Jeremy said. Jeremy’s relative was a rail saboteur, blowing up trains.

The Nazis took his grandmother’s cousin when he was 17. She never saw her cousin again, Jeremy said. 

“They lived in fear like this,” he said.

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Chris Libonati is the managing editor of Central Current. He is a founding editorial member of the organization and was hired as Central Current's first reporter. He previously worked at the Syracuse Post-Standard...