La Raza Continues to Keep Families United!

In a heart-wrenching case, an Immigration Judge has allowed parents of seven US citizen children to remain legally in the US.

In 2010, the day after Thanksgiving, two college students of a family of nine visited La Raza Centro Legal because their father had been taken from their home.  He was detained by immigration in the Otero, New Mexico, detention facility because of a deportation order.  Their father was being processed to be deported to Guatemala and their mother was ordered to present herself within a week to be deported also to Guatemala. 

The court originally ordered that the parents of seven children be deported to Guatemala, leaving their United States citizen children ages 10 to 20 to remain to care for themselves.  This would have been a great hardship as no other family member is here to assist in supporting the children and one of the children required eye surgery.  Yet, the law does not automatically prevent the separation of families.  In fact, many families must face this ordeal every year.

In December 2011, Judge Stockton ordered the cancellation of deportation of Mr. and Mrs. Rodriguez.   This occurred only because of the amazing assistance of co-counsel to La Raza Centro Legal.  The Law Offices of Salgado and Associates assisted La Raza with the case by providing many hours of drafting pleadings, interviewing witnesses and most importantly obtaining the assistance of an expert witness.  The expert witness was a doctor who showed the great hardship due to the eye condition of the 10 year old son.  He would have gone blind if he did not have the support of his parents to receive the removal of his cataracts as well as the ongoing after care.

It is important that immigration laws change to allow hard working families not to be torn apart and treated like criminals.  Before dawn Mr. Rodriguez was taken from his home by gun point, shackled and placed in a detention center.  This was horrifying to his wife and children, a sight and experience they will never forget.

If you care about ensuring that resources are available to families, please support La Raza Centro Legal (www.lrcl.org) by making a donation and please take part in La Raza’s immigration actions to change the law.