Jessica Cheung

And this change in mood is starting to have an impact on Isla too.

Oh, man.

Would you ever consider moving to Brazil to be with your dad if it came to that?

I wanted to ask, you know, what do you make of the fact that for a lot of Americans, your father's story, while sympathetic, might at the end of the day feel like, yeah, he ultimately was here, not legally.

What would you say to those people who might agree with the administration's policies to remove people like your dad who don't have documentation here?

You mentioned you spent most of your life envisioning a future with your dad and going into business with your dad.

Given everything that's happened, what is that dream now?

Like no time had passed.

Yeah.

Isla never got the call to pick up her dad.

Instead, a few days after we had talked, she received news that her dad had been deported from the U.S.

to Brazil.

So Isla packed a small suitcase for herself and a bigger one for her dad, and she booked a ticket for one to Brazil.

And on Tuesday morning, at the arrivals terminal in Belo Horizonte Airport, Isla finally got to be with her dad.

I guess that the feeling you're describing is that you don't feel like you belong there in Brazil.

Is there specific things you saw that triggered you into thinking, I'm not supposed to be here?

Is it like the smell of, I don't know, the air?

You mentioned that you wanted, when we last talked, to work with your dad and that the dream was to start a company, to design and build places.

And I guess I wonder if that's still the plan, if you feel like that dream is still possible in some way.

I first spoke to Isla back in February. This was a month into the Trump administration, which had promised quick and mass deportations. I was calling immigration lawyers around the country, trying to get a sense of who exactly was getting targeted for deportation and how ICE was fining them. And that's when a lawyer called me back, saying you got to talk to Isla.