Stephany Gauffeny is dealing with grief, bills, and five children without her husband. She's a widow after her husband, Miguel Angel Garcia Medina, was one of two people killed in the Dallas ICE facility ambush. 

Federal investigators said the shooting on September 24, 2025, was targeting ICE agents. The victims were detainees, including Garcia.

Grief is a battle for Gauffeny. Her son, who is 4 years old and named after his father, Miguel, brought her to tears before she could get out of bed.

"I woke up, and the first thing my son told me—like I was barely waking up, getting ready for work, and he was like. 'Mommy, where's Papi?'" she said. "I keep telling him, you know, 'he's in the sky. He's with Jesus.'"

Then, she has 14-year-old Barbie, 12-year-old Kendra, 9-year-old Makayla, and 3-month-old Miles. The plan was for Garcia to be there. He was a painter and a handyman who had plans for their home, she said. Those plans changed when Gauffeny said someone from ICE called about her husband on Sep. 24, but didn't mention he'd been shot.

"I remember the first time I saw him, I just started crying because he had like tubes everywhere down his throat," Gauffney said.

She said a nurse estimated the 31-year-old had been shot eight to nine times. Gauffney was nine months pregnant and due to give birth at any time. A week later, she faced the crushing decision of taking Garcia off life support.

He had been picked up by police for DUI, which is how he got transferred to the ICE facility in Dallas. While he became the love of her life, Garcia was not an American citizen. But there he was with a fate worse than deportation.

"If he were to miraculously wake up. He wouldn't be himself, you know, he might not be able to talk, move eat," she said.

He lived for five minutes off the machine, she said. Three days later, Gauffeny was pulling double duty. She gave birth to the couple's son, Miles.

"I remember, you know, sitting in the hospital just giving birth to him and getting a call from the funeral home," she said. "You know, like, asking me things about you know his casket and letting me know that they had picked him up from the hospital."

The widow and mother said those moments were challenging because she had pictured her husband with her.

Then, two months ago, a letter came in the mail. It was a letter from the federal government approving his next step towards citizenship. She said he had been looking for it.

"And he would always ask me, you know, 'Have you checked the mail? Have I gotten anything?'" she said. "And it was something we were really expecting for years."

The family has gone through the holiday season without him. Most hurtful, she said, was New Year's and Jan. 5. It was his 32nd birthday and their 10th anniversary.

It hurts. She cries. Grieves. When there's a new incident involving ICE, although her husband's case was different, the pain gets deeper.

"No, it wasn't the same situation," she said. "It kind of brought me back, you know to how I felt."

Gauffeny even admits she hasn't had time to mourn. She's been too busy being a mom, working, and raising funds on GoFundMe to support her home.