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N.J. family loses tamale business and car after ICE roadblock

After an ICE roadblock led to her husband’s detention, a New Jersey woman scrambled to raise money to return him to Colombia while the couple lost the tamale business and their car.

Published May 6, 2026, 7:00 AM EDT | LehighValleyLive

By Jorge Melchor | Edited by Patricia Guadalupe

For five years, Ana Melba and her husband, Jairo Antonio Acosta, blended hope and determination into the masa they wrapped with green banana leaves and steamed into tamales they sold in suburban Elizabeth, New Jersey.