Deported Oshkosh Teacher Slept On Concrete, Husband Says, As ICE Revises Story

Wendy Mendez, left, and Richard Godfrey, second from left, stand with their two sons. The family moved to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, from Costa Rica in 2020. Photo courtesy of the Godfrey/Mendez family

When Richard Godfrey received a call last week letting him know that his wife, Wendy Mendez, had safely landed in Costa Rica, he said it felt like “having a truck taken off” his chest.

That’s because he knew she was finally safe after more than a week in federal immigration detention, Godfrey said.

He said his wife, a Costa Rica native, was transferred to six detention facilities in eight days, where he says she was forced to sleep “on concrete floors with rags for blankets in a whole room of people.”

“Who gave them a right to mistreat people like this? You never have a right,” he said of federal immigration authorities. “We never acquire a right to mistreat people. If you have to process them through a system, process it. Have dignity.”

Godfrey, an Oshkosh resident, spoke with WPR Wednesday morning at Menominee Park in Oshkosh. He said he wanted to “set the record straight” about his wife’s immigration case.

Mendez is a middle school Spanish teacher and a former “employee of the year” for the Oshkosh Area School District. Godfrey is a U.S. citizen who grew up on the west side of Chicago. He moved to Costa Rica around 35 years ago after “getting the bug” to travel the world.

While he was in Costa Rica, Godfrey worked in construction and contracting. He eventually met Mendez and the two began dating roughly three decades ago.

They share two children together and moved to Oshkosh from Costa Rica in 2020. Godfrey said the family wanted to come to the U.S. in large part because their youngest son has Down syndrome and there are more special-needs services in America than Costa Rica.

“We have a now 13-year-old Down syndrome boy who’s highly functional due to the care and therapies and private classes that Wendy’s had him in the whole time,” Godfrey said. “I attribute his success to her.”

Federal authorities falsely claimed Mendez was in custody

Mendez was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Oct. 14 in Milwaukee, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The statement from DHS, widely circulated to media outlets on Tuesday, said Mendez would “remain in custody pending her removal from the United States.” But Godfrey says she hasn’t been in the country for nearly a week.

“She’s been there since last Thursday,” Godfrey told WPR.

In response to an inquiry Wednesday about discrepancies between the statement from DHS and Godfrey’s account, a spokesperson from DHS issued a nearly identical statement. But it had one major change.

The new statement acknowledges Mendez is no longer in custody.

“On October 22, 2026, ICE removed Mendez from the country,” the Wednesday statement read.

Federal authorities say Mendez came to the U.S. legally on a “temporary basis” in 2020 and “failed to depart” by February 2021. The statement also says Mendez was placed into removal proceedings in February and ordered to be removed on Sept. 9 “for failing to show up for her removal proceedings.”

Godfrey disputes several aspects of the statement. He said the family was actively pursuing a marriage-based adjustment of immigration status when she was detained.

Oshkosh Area School District Superintendent Bryan Davis presents Wendy Mendez, right, with an “employee of the year” award in 2025. Source: Oshkosh Area School District YouTube

The family began the process shortly after moving to Wisconsin in 2020, he said. Godfrey said immigration officials first needed to approve his petition on behalf of his wife before she could continue the green card process. He said that approval took roughly five years.

The family thought they were doing everything right. Godfrey said Mendez received a work permit and Social Security number from immigration authorities in 2023.

“She got her Social Security number,” he said. “She paid two years of taxes, so it’s like, ‘What do you mean she’s not supposed to be here?’”

On Oct. 14, he said the couple was in Milwaukee for spousal interviews with federal authorities as part of their I-130 petition, a legal step for applying for a Green Card through a U.S. citizen spouse or relative.

Godfrey said federal agents asked him for Mendez’s birth date, as well as a few other questions. He said he brought photos of the couple together in Costa Rica from years ago — back when he “still had dark hair.”

After his interview, he said Mendez went in for hers. The next thing Godfrey knew, an official was telling him that his wife had been placed in detention.

“I go, ‘What? For what?’ I almost fainted,” Godfrey recalled.

He said federal personnel were dismissive of his questions and concerns. When one official showed him a notification that had been sent in the mail, Godfrey remembers saying, “We don’t live there.” He said the official responded: “I don’t care — just call a lawyer, and he’s going to handle it.”

Godfrey said the notification was sent to an address the family hasn’t lived at in nearly four years. He said other documents from immigration officials, such as her work permit and Social Security number, were being sent to the correct address.

DHS did not directly respond to questions about the family’s claim that immigration notices were mailed to an outdated address.

Godfrey said his wife’s concerns about the mix-up also fell on deaf ears.

“People from ICE told her, ‘Yeah, it looks like there was a mistake. But by the time your lawyer does something, you’re going to be back in Costa Rica’ — kind of taunting her like that,” Godfrey said.

ICE’s 2026 National Detention Standards say the agency’s personnel and facilities are required to provide “humane living conditions” to those in detention, as well as “address detainees in a professional and respectful manner.”

Four days into his wife’s detention, Godfrey said federal authorities approved the couple’s I-130 petition.

13-year-old son will move to Costa Rica

Godfrey said both of the couple’s sons are Americans. The oldest is in college. He said he and his wife plan for their youngest, the 13-year-old, to return to Costa Rica to be with his mother until she can return to the country.

“Probably within two weeks he’ll be moving back there, which is very hard to even imagine because we’re a family unit, and she’s in exile right now,” he said.

He said Mendez was the social one in the couple, always planning parties and events for their friends in Wisconsin. They’ve received overwhelming support from those friends since news of Wendy’s detention and deportation spread.

Godfrey said the couple is waiting for an immigration judge in Chicago to rule on the technical error, and then finish the green card process following the already-approved I-130 petition.

“She’s not coming back until she has her green card in her hand in Costa Rica,” he said. “I’m not putting her at risk. Even coming back, she runs the risk of being out in a supermarket and being grabbed by ICE. But she’ll have her documents with her.”

‘She’s in exile right now’: Husband of deported Oshkosh teacher speaks out was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.