A Willard mother, who was facing deportation this week, was granted a temporary stay Monday afternoon to care for her son with disabilities.
"Sometimes you have ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] personnel that's consciousness, and in this case we did," said Frank Krajenke, attorney for Celedonia Santos Perez.
Perez is an undocumented immigrant who said she entered the U.S. illegally via the Arizona desert in 2002. She grew up in Guatemala. Perez returned to Guatemala with her son five years ago to care for her ill mother then returned to the U.S. in the last year. She said she was allowed through at a border crossing in El Paso, Texas but was mandated to see federal officials about her status. Federal officials denied her asylum.
"I'm not a bad person," said Perez in Spanish. "I'm not a danger to the country."
Rather, Perez said she needs to stay in the U.S. for her 12-year-old son Ricardo Gomez Santos, who has neurological and speech disorders.
"She takes care of me," said Santos. "She's with me all of the time."
"Her life is her son," added Krajenke.
In a last-minute reprieve Monday, ICE said Perez can stay with Santos until at least the end of the school year.
"Very happy," said Santos in response to the news.
newsnet5.com reached out to ICE regarding Perez's situation. In a statement, they said this:
"As part of the civil immigration enforcement priorities announced by Secretary Johnson in November 2014, ICE focuses its enforcement resources on individuals who pose a threat to national security, public safety and border security. This includes individuals, whether alone or with family members, who have been apprehended while attempting to unlawfully enter the United States, recent border crossers, and individuals who have received a final order of removal on or after January 1, 2014."
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the number of deportations in the country more than doubled between 2001 and 2013. There were 438,000 people deported in 2013.
If Perez is deported, she said Santos will stay with his father in Willard who is also undocumented, as she feels Guatemala is too underdeveloped and too dangerous to take him with her.
"The classes that they give him here, the treatment that they give him here, they can't give him there [in Guatemala]," added Perez.
"If they allow my mother to stay here, I will be very content," said Santos.
