Two brothers, including a Mexican citizen vacationing in Orlando, are being detained in Alligator Alcatraz after a traffic stop in the city earlier this month, their father said Wednesday.

The brothers’ detention has become an international incident, with the Mexican Consulate issuing a warning to its citizens about visiting Orlando and Mexico’s president demanding they be returned home “immediately.”

In an interview at the consulate, Martin Gonzalez said in Spanish he was “desperate to come and help” his sons. “I’m scared to be here, but I have to be here because I have to do something.”

On July 7, Carlos Martin Gonzalez, 26, was driving at the intersection of Hughey Avenue and Robinson Street in Orlando when he was pulled over by the Florida Highway Patrol for having tinted windows and a Mexican license plate, according to an arrest affidavit.

A trooper ran the license plate and found the car had no valid registration in the U.S. or Mexico, the report said. Carlos told the trooper his older brother, 31-year-old Oscar Alejandro Gonzalez, had the registration documents.

Oscar arrived with a car title, but it did not have either brother’s name on it, FHP said. Carlos was arrested for driving an unregistered car and taken to Orange County jail, the report said.

Arrests for minor traffic infractions are how many immigrants in Central Florida end up in custody as the Trump administration cracks down on undocumented migrants, the Orlando Sentinel reported Sunday.

It is not clear why Oscar was detained, and no records of his arrest could be found. But the men’s father said both were taken into custody that day.

Carlos had been in the U.S. for three months, attending a Formula One race in Miami and visiting Las Vegas. He had a tourist visa and plane ticket for a flight back to Mexico on July 15, his father said.

He was in Orlando visiting Oscar, who came to the U.S. eight months ago with his wife, a U.S. citizen, to start a life in Orlando. He was on a tourist visa at first while he worked to secure the green card, his father said.

After three days in the Orange County Jail on holds issued by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the brothers were transferred to Alligator Alcatraz, the state’s newest immigration detention center in the Everglades, Martin Gonzalez said.

He immediately flew to Orlando from his home in Mexico City and is working alongside the Mexican Consulate, which hired an immigration attorney to help him get his sons out and back home. But the attorney cannot get access to them, said Juan Sabines Guerrero, the consul at the Consulate.

Martin Gonzalez has been able to reach his sons by phone but says he feels “powerless and sad” knowing his children are in the infamous detention center.

“They tell me they are scared and desperate to get back to their home country,” Gonzalez said. “They say it’s a closed place with artificial lights on 24 hours a day, and they don’t know what time it is, or if it’s day or night.”

Guerrero said the consulate was confident that the brothers are not criminals. It only hires lawyers for special immigration cases as it has a very small budget, he said, but these cases are becoming increasingly common.

“We are in limbo because we have no kind of legal process,” Guerrero said. “It’s very unfair… in this state, they want all immigrants to be criminals, but it’s not true.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday that 14 Mexican citizens are detained in Alligator Alcatraz, among them the two brothers. In a press conference on Tuesday, Sheinbaum said, “All arrangements are being made to ensure they are repatriated immediately.”

Guerrero said the impact of the brothers’ case will be felt across the state.

Central Florida broke records in 2024 for tourism, and 6.5 million visitors came from outside the U.S. Mexican tourists made up the third-largest group of international visitors, according to recent data from Visit Orlando.

“Seven flights daily from Mexico,” Guerrero said. “That’s a lot of tourists and plus Miami another ten fly daily.”

But Guerrero felt the need to caution them about travelling here.

“We don’t want to say, ‘Don’t come to Florida,’” he said. “We love Disney. But there are just some warnings that if you want to come to Orlando, be safe and put in your pocket your drivers license or your visa. This is a difficult time for us.”

Florida’s crackdown on immigration is spreading fear in the Mexican community, Guerrero said. The consulate is more empty than it’s ever been because people are afraid to leave their homes and those with work visas are looking to leave the state, he said, leaving employers without workers.

“Construction companies come to us saying they need workers,” Guerrero said. “But this is the new reality.”

The brothers’ trip was meant to be uplifting after a dark period of grief after their mother died in October.

“It was very hard for the entire family … she died of cancer,” Martin Gonzalez said. “It affected them so much emotionally, especially for Carlos because we lived, the three of us, together still. Oscar had already left home four years ago, but Carlos had a really strong bond with his mother.”

Martin Gonzalez said he finds peace knowing that even his country’s president knows of the situation. He previously visited the United States in May but now expects his current trip will be his last.

“I hope this will all be resolved soon … it will be hard to leave here without my children, but I have faith in God,” Martin Gonzalez said. “I will never visit Florida again.”