Mexican father, reflecting a trend, leaves family of 19 years and self-deports due to threat of arrest

The Rivera family of Raleigh, North Carolina, spent a recent weekend playing board games, cheering at a soccer game and visiting a local park. But unlike most families out and about that weekend, those routine moments marked an emotional farewell.

Fidel Rivera, a husband and father who has been in the U.S. for 30 years without legal status, decided to return to Mexico, leaving his U.S. citizen wife and two daughters behind. He said his decision was the result of the Trump administration's promise to "arrest and deport" anyone without lawful status.

The Riveras' story, airing on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" and on "ABC News Live Prime," was produced in partnership with ABC Owned Station WTVD in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

Rivera, who left Mexico at 18, is one of a growing number of people compelled to self-deport out of fear of arrest and detention. The administration's aggressive immigration enforcement has escalated the risk: Nearly 60,000 people are currently being held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

According to the agency's own data, almost half of those detainees have no criminal record -- their violations are limited to immigration offenses.

"The decision is to give peace to my wife and to my kids," Rivera told Raleigh ABC station WTVD. "I don't want [them to] see me in handcuffs with chains in the jail."

"As we started seeing people that were being picked up for dumb things -- like, not criminals -- and picked up and put in detention centers, I did not want my husband wrapped up in that," Rivera's wife Jennifer Rivera said. "I cannot see him being tied up in any of that."

Over the past 30 years, Rivera became an electrician and worked in construction. He met Jennifer, a math teacher, 19 years ago while salsa dancing. Their two daughters, Isabella and Mackenzie, are high school students.

Because Rivera entered the country without authorization, he cannot adjust his legal status, even though Jennifer and his daughters are U.S. citizens.

"Even though he's married to a U.S. citizen, even though we have two U.S. citizen children, even though he pays taxes, and even though he is not a criminal -- he has to leave the country," Jennifer said.

The Rivera family's decision reflects a national trend. Rivera is one of the 1.6 million people the Department of Homeland Security says have self-deported amid the threat of arrest.

The administration has actively encouraged undocumented individuals to self-deport, viewing voluntary departures as proof that its policies are working.

According to the Center for Migration Studies, mass deportations threaten to break up nearly 5 million mixed status families -- those with at least one undocumented resident.

The administration has been explicit about its enforcement aims.

"President Trump has a clear message for those that are in our country illegally: Leave now," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said earlier this year in a video. "If you don't, we will find you and we will deport you. You will never return."

After returning to Mexico and moving to his new home on the Yucatan Peninsula, Rivera told ABC News the hardest thing for him was to wake up without his wife next to him and not be able to get his daughters ready for school. He plans to find a job in construction.

The rest of his family decided to stay so that his two daughters can finish high school and Jennifer can secure her retirement.

Due to his status, Rivera can't visit his family in the U.S. and can't apply for any U.S. status for 10 years.

"I don't wish this on anyone. I never thought I would be away from my family," Rivera said. "I never thought I would leave them behind."

"I never asked the United States government for anything," he said. "Everything I did was with my job. I paid my taxes, I was a good citizen, I learned English, and I had a beautiful family."

ABC News' Victoria Moll Ramirez, Anne Laurent and Leo Salinas contributed to this report.