A 75-year-old Texas Republican who says he voted for President Donald Trump choked up as he told CBS News he now regrets his ballot after ICE agents detained his fiancée at a Houston airport and placed her in a detention cell.

John Gannon, a businessman who owns more than 1,000 U.S. billboards, said eight plainclothes agents surrounded his fiancée, 45-year-old Yasmin Suarez Reyes, as the couple prepared to travel to a Las Vegas convention on July 24. Agents took her away without explanation, Gannon told CBS News. Weeks later, she remains held at a Texas processing center.

According to her attorney, Suarez Reyes complied with all legal requirements. A Venezuelan-born Spanish citizen, she entered the United States legally under the Visa Waiver Program in 2023 and filed for asylum before her authorized stay lapsed. The Visa Waiver Program allows citizens of participating countries, including Spain, to enter the U.S. for up to 90 days without a visa, but participants generally waive the right to extend their stay or contest removal beyond asylum claims — a restriction that has placed some applicants in legal limbo even when they follow proper procedures. She holds a work permit and a Texas driver's license and has no criminal record. Her asylum case remains pending; however, because her original entry permission expired, ICE moved to deport her regardless. Her lawyer, Anne Kennedy, is also a lifelong Republican.

Gannon said he feels "totally betrayed." His disillusionment comes amid an ICE push to conduct arrests at airports, a tactic that helped drive detentions to a second-term monthly high in July. The airport arrests reflect a broader expansion of enforcement sites under the administration's second-term immigration strategy, which has increasingly targeted individuals at transit hubs even when they have pending legal proceedings. Gannon joins a growing number of Trump voters — from residents of a deep-red Georgia town to Latino business owners — who have grown critical of the crackdown they once supported.

When a reporter noted that Gannon had cast his ballot for Trump, the businessman expressed deep regret.

"Yeah. I wouldn't do that again. Not after this fiasco," he said. "This is like the Gestapo."

"Go after the criminals. We're all for that," Gannon said. "But leave the mom and pops and the kids alone. Man, he's destroying families."

Asked what message he would deliver to the president, Gannon wondered aloud what Trump was doing. Then his voice broke.

"Yasmin's good as gold," he protested.

Texas businessman John Gannon says he feels "totally betrayed" after his Venezuelan fiancée, Yasmin Suarez Reyes, was detained by ICE at Houston's international airport. A lifelong Republican who says he voted for President Trump, Gannon told CBS News' @camiloreports he now… pic.twitter.com/7dDvGH1TrM

— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 6, 2026