Lawrence restaurateur Lourdes Perez Rojo speaks out after ICE backlash

Lourdes E. Perez Rojo is trying to pull her Lawrence restaurants back into focus after weeks of online backlash tied to the immigration case involving her partner, Victor Roman. She said the comments she and her children saw were painful and racially charged, and the fallout has left her running Los Guapos Latin Food and LuLu’s Latin Food on her own while trying to keep the business steady.

Perez Rojo grew up in Michoacán, Mexico, where her parents operated a lonchería, and she moved to Lawrence in 2015. Food and hospitality have shaped much of her life since then, from welcoming customers at Cielito Lindo to helping build LuLu’s Latin Food, which opened in February 2023, and Los Guapos, which opened at 1500 W. Sixth St. on Sept. 7, 2024. She and Roman spent seven months developing the Los Guapos concept and decor, creating a restaurant meant to blend cuisines from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Cuba, Peru, Costa Rica and Argentina and feel like dining at a mother’s house.

Roman was taken by immigration officials the week of April 21, Perez Rojo said, and he later left the United States and returned to Guatemala to help his immigration status. By mid-May, a GoFundMe organized by a family friend had raised more than $15,000 to support Roman, Perez Rojo and their young children. Perez Rojo said she has been able to talk with Roman nearly every day, but the family does not know whether he may be able to return in six months, two years or not at all.

The strain lands in a city already on edge over immigration enforcement. In February, advocates said five ICE detentions were confirmed in Lawrence in a single day, and Lawrence police and the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said they had no advance notice. Earlier in 2025, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security identified Lawrence and Douglas County as sanctuary jurisdictions, a designation that deepened anxiety across immigrant families and small businesses.

Perez Rojo’s story also follows a string of setbacks and reinventions for her restaurant work. Cielito Lindo was destroyed by fire on the night of Dec. 13 into Dec. 14, 2023, and Los Guapos became a new anchor for the business after that loss. Now, the pressure extends beyond the dining room, testing how a visible local restaurant brand holds onto staff, ownership and customer loyalty when a family’s private crisis becomes public debate.