Immigrant contractor in detention since July faces key hearing Jan. 2

AI-assisted summary
• A Palm Beach County business owner has been detained by ICE since July and faces potential deportation.
• Miguel Victor Chaclan's family says he has a pending asylum case, a valid work permit, and no criminal record.
• His detention has caused significant emotional and financial hardship for his family.
• Chaclan is scheduled for a pivotal court hearing on Jan. 2 that will determine if he is released or deported.

A Palm Beach County businessman whose family's attorney said has a pending asylum case is facing potential deportation. Miguel Victor Chaclan is scheduled for a pivotal hearing Friday, Jan. 2, his family members told The Palm Beach Post.

Chaclan has been detained since July 11 when Florida Highway Patrol deputies pulled him over while on his way to work near Jupiter and turned him over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency known as ICE.

Chaclan, 39, a native of Guatemala, owns MVC Painting, a construction and painting business that has focused on Palm Beach Gardens, including homes in upscale communities like the County Club at Marisol.

An attorney representing the family said Chaclan has lived in the United States for 22 years, has a pending asylum case, doesn't have a criminal record and had a valid driver's license and work permit at the time of the arrest.

Since being taken into custody, Chaclan has been held at the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, a detention facility managed by GEO Group under a contract with ICE. His family hopes the patriarch is released at the upcoming hearing.

Already, they note, their father's absence has been costly in numerous ways, and not just because he is the family's sole provider.

The day after his arrest was Victor’s daughter's "quiceñera" — a debutante-like celebration for adolescent girls when they turn 15 — and he wasn't there to waltz her to the iconic song “Quince veces el sol” ("Fifteen Times The Sun"), his daughter Brianna recalled in a New Year's Eve interview with The Palm Beach Post. 

"It felt weird because I’m never without my dad,” Brianna said. “I was the first one in the family to have a quinceañera, and it was sad that he wasn't there with me.”

Six months later, Brianna, who is a U.S. citizen, is still waiting for that dance.

Asylum papers didn't sway federal officials to release immigrant

FHP stopped Chaclan at about 10:30 a.m. on July 11 near the intersection of Northlake Boulevard and Jog Road as he drove his truck to a project at a house in North Palm Beach. He was held for four days at a Riviera Beach immigration detention center, and on July 15 was transferred to Broward.

The family's attorney said police agencies have not released either the arrest report or their justification for Chaclan's detention.

On Jan. 2, Victor’s oldest son, Michael, will spend his 18th birthday listening to a court hearing that will determine whether his father comes home or gets deported to Guatemala.

“I’m scared,” said Michael Chaclan. "It's not fair that for my 18th birthday, instead of celebrating a wonderful milestone, I have to be worried about the future of my family and how it's going to affect us if he is deported.”

Immigration enforcement top Trump administration priority

Chaclan's hearing comes at a time when the Trump administration has increased its immigration enforcement efforts not only in Palm Beach County but across Florida and other states. His detention is just one of a growing number of cases of asylum seekers in the United States being arrested and detained despite having pending cases and valid work permits and permission to be in the country.

In December, residents of Palm Beach, which counts President Donald Trump as a resident, decried and demanded the release of a popular restaurant figure, José Gonzalez of BiCE Ristorante on Worth Avenue. Gonzalez, who like Chaclan had a pending asylum case, was ultimately freed from detention.

North Palm Beach resident Joel Tancer said he has known Victor Chaclan for 15 years. He described him as a gentleman and an exceptional contractor who is always timely, honest and trustworthy.

Tancer said the detention shocked him.

"I find it incredibly sad that a hard-working person who's been here for so many years, trying to become a citizen, somehow wasn't able to do that,” said Tancer.

"Victor would be an ideal person that we would want to be a citizen."

Family recounts detention of father as he drove to job site

On July 11, Magali Bravo saw her husband have coffee with bread at their home near West Palm Beach and then drive off to a job site. That day, a Friday, Chaclan didn't have to work, but he wanted to drop off the latest paint samples for a client’s job set to start the following Monday.

Minutes later Bravo received a call from Chaclan.

"'The state troopers got me. All I know is they are taking me to 'La Migra,' ” Bravo said Chaclan told her before the call got cut off. "La Migra" is Spanish slang for immigration-enforcement agents.

Terrified, Bravo called her son. Michael, Victor’s brother-in-law and his longtime business partner, Patricia Reardon, went to the Riviera Beach detention center to show authorities his asylum paperwork, his work permit and a copy of his driver's license.

But officers there refused to release him or disclose why he was being held.

"I couldn't believe that even with the papers, it doesn't matter,” said Michael, who said he returned to the Riviera Beach facility every day until July 15, when Victor was transferred. "I was devastated."

On top of trying to reach multiple lawyers and talk to Victor's clients, the Chaclan family had a quinceañera to hold.

'Not the same': Quinceañera with father in immigration detention

On July 12, the Chaclan family should have been woken up to Victor's voice singing 'Las Mañanitas' ("The Little Mornings") for Brianna's 15th birthday. Instead, they woke up anxious, wondering how they would host a quinceañera without their dad.

Brianna wanted to cancel the party. But everything was already paid for and her extended family convinced her to go on with it.

A cloud of sadness loomed as the family arranged decorations in silence, Michael Chaclan recalled.

At the party, Brianna wore a champagne-gold puffy dress, high heels and her brown hair fixed with a sparkly tiara but tears streamed down her cheeks as she walked to the dance floor, family said.

Instead of her dad, Michael Chaclan took his father's spot for the traditional "Baile de Padre e Hija (father-daughter dance).”

Bravo cried as she watched Brianna and Michael dance. She said Brianna's quinceañera was a family milestone that she and Victor Chaclan had saved for and looked forward to for years.

"We did the party with everyone's help,” said Bravo, adding Chaclan would have wanted it that way. "But it just wasn't the same without him. We did it for her."

Family finances torn apart by father's detention

Over the last six months Victor Chaclan has missed other special moments, Bravo said.

He missed his mother's first visit to the United States, where they were supposed to reunite for the first time in 22 years. He missed Michael Chaclan's first day of college at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. And he also missed his church's annual posada, where he leads the Hispanic version of Christmas carols.

Victor Chaclan is the sole provider for his household and financially supports his mother-in-law who was left paralyzed and dependent on a wheelchair after a crash seven years ago. His absence has thrown the family into financial chaos, Bravo said.

“We all depend on him and I haven't had his support for six months,” said Bravo. "Financially we are crashing down.”

"If they send him away, I just don’t know what I am going to do,” she added, sobbing.

Victor Chaclan met Bravo, who is also from Guatemala, in 2004 at St. John Fisher Catholic Church near Bak Middle School of the Arts in West Palm Beach, where Victor is the worship band’s leader and singer.

He fled Guatemala to seek asylum in the United States after he barely survived a beating by MS-13 gang members, Michael Chaclan said. He had declined to join the gang, and the beating left him in a hospital bed.

Michael Chaclan described his father as hard-working but also as the type of dad who made time to play with his kids after work and attend their school events.

Ever since the arrest in July, Michael has taken over his dad's business while being enrolled full time at FAU to help his mother keep up with bills.

While in detention, Victor Chaclan received an order for deportation that his attorneys challenged in court. Months later, however, his appeal was denied for failing to show proof of "unusual and extreme hardship" if he were deported.

"Him being deported would devastate us beyond anything I can imagine," Bravo said.

"I feel like the courts had failed us," Michael Chaclan said. "How can the court decide that it's not unusual hardship when I'm losing my dad?"

Sad Christmas, New Year hopes for father's release

This December, the family missed Victor Chaclan and the Christmas spirit.

Michael Chaclan said his father usually got everyone in the holiday spirit by singing villancicos, or traditional Spanish folk songs, and by putting up the Christmas tree and adorning every corner of the house with colorful strips of lights. This year, their home was quiet and dark. 

"It was like a really sad Christmas without him,” Michael said. "The whole family [didn't have] the Christmas spirit at all. We really couldn't celebrate it without him.”

On New Year's Eve, Victor Chaclan traditionally takes his family fishing followed by a large party. This year, instead of celebratin,g the Chaclan family is working.

Michael, Brianna and their mother spent New Year's Eve catching up with painting jobs.

In the evening, they said they would gather around their table with an empty seat and will all wish for the same thing as they ring in the 2026.

"Our wish is that he is released and that he is returned to us," Bravo said. "Our family has never been separated before. We can't do this without him."

Community reactions to detention of local business owner

Patricia Reardon, a Palm Beach Gardens interior designer, said she has known Victor Chaclan for over 20 years and said that his detention has shocked his clients and many North Palm Beach residents.

Reardon met Chaclan when he was still an employee for a construction company. She saw how he learned and poured every dime he had into opening his own company in 2008. 

Since then, Chaclan has become her clients' favorite contractor, with many of them fighting for a spot on his schedule. 

"Victor is not a criminal. He is an honorable man that takes care of his family," said Reardon, owner of Reardon Interiors. "He should not be detained. They have the wrong person." 

Reardon said since Chaclan was detained in July she has lost three jobs because she doesn't have him to fulfill them. She added many clients are holding up on doing their work until he is released.

"Our ancestors came through Ellis Island to build better lives for so many of us, and we've always been a welcoming country and the opportunity to better yourself, for you and for your children's children," Reardon said. "That's what the United States always represented, and it's changed a lot."

Leticia Pino said she has known Chaclan for 10 years and described him as a “master in his craft.”

Pino said Chaclan is the rare kind of contractor who always exceeds expectations, is punctual and pays attention to the finish of every detail. 

“Victor is very sought-after for his talent, his integrity and sense of responsibility,” Pino said. "He is a very hard worker and a very lovely young man to deal with.”

Pino, a Cuban exile, said she is against illegal immigration but that its enforcement needs be done in a way that takes into consideration the contributions people like Chaclan have made to the country for years.

“He demonstrated that he was not only integrating himself and raising a family, respecting our American laws, and helping many others to find employment and to teach them the craft,” Pino said.

“He was building other people’s homes,” Pino added.

Valentina Palm covers immigration and the western communities of Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post. Email her at vpalm@pbpost.com. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.