EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Miriam Herrera a number of days in the past requested a relative in Twin Falls, Idaho, to look at her children for 2 weeks whereas she and her husband flew to the U.S.-Mexico border to meet a dream 5 years within the making.
However the dream of getting her “inexperienced card” based mostly on her husband’s U.S. citizenship all of the sudden crashed. An immigration officer on the U.S. Consulate in Juarez final week not solely rejected her utility but additionally banned her from re-entering the USA for 10 years.
“Our children are questioning once we are coming residence. We don’t need to inform them what’s happening as a result of it’s laborious sufficient on us and I think about it’s going to be laborious on them, too,” Miriam Herrera stated.
The couple has spent the previous 4 days calling their legal professionals and emailing state and federal elected officers in Idaho who may also help return the mom to her youngsters and the one nation she’s known as residence for the previous few many years.
“We figured all the things was going to be good. We don’t have a legal document. We’ve achieved all the things by the ebook. We figured we had been going to return right here, produce all of the paperwork that we wanted, caring for enterprise and coming again to our household. That wasn’t the case,” stated Baldemar Herrera, a Twin Falls home-remodeling entrepreneur.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) in 2020 obtained greater than 700,000 petitions for alien kinfolk (Type I-130) of U.S. residents and lawful everlasting residents.
Immigration specialists say such petitions have a excessive probability of approval, however that tens of 1000’s are rejected yearly. The commonest causes for denial embody inadequate proof of eligibility, having a legal document, or having entered and stayed unlawfully in the USA. A six-month illegal keep disqualifies you from petitioning for a “inexperienced card” or authorized residency in the USA for 3 years; a one-year keep for 10 years.
Miriam Herrera, 31, stated she was informed on the U.S. consulate that she was current within the nation unlawfully when she was 5 after which when she was 7 years outdated. She says her father informed her they’d been to the USA on two events, however that it was for not more than a few months. The immigration officer on the consulate informed her it had been two years.
“She requested me if my father may attest to this, however my father is deceased,” she stated. “My lawyer says this could’ve by no means occurred. Two different legal professionals stated I shouldn’t have been banned. They stated it was a simple case and may’ve been permitted. Now, we’re right here in Juarez staying in somebody’s home and I don’t know after I’ll be again residence, with my children.”
Her youngsters are ages 14, 13 and eight.
El Paso immigration lawyer Iliana Holguin stated she’s seen many situations of heartbreak through the years in the case of rejected immigration petitions.
“Getting your I-130 permitted doesn’t imply you’re assured a inexperienced card. It’s only one step within the course of. They nonetheless must go to the consulate and that’s the place they take your fingerprints and your immigration historical past comes up, that’s the place the dedication is made,” Holguin stated.
She recommends for immigrants and their sponsors to have the recommendation of a board-certified immigration lawyer earlier than submitting a petition, and even then there’s no assure.
“It’s a horrible expertise to depart the USA, go to a consulate after you’ve been right here for years – many years in some situations – and get denied. I can’t think about something extra horrible than having your interview and getting informed, ‘no, you’re by no means going again to the U.S.’ It’s extremely annoying, traumatic as a result of in lots of circumstances you might have children, you might have a life right here.”
Baldemar Herrera stated he’s relying on his legal professionals developing with an answer. “It’s form of laborious proper now. We haven’t been capable of sleep. We’re form of in shock to what’s happening,” he stated.
Miriam Herrera stated she needed to acquire authorized standing in the USA to keep away from a repeat of a traumatic expertise she had as a baby.
“I went by way of a state of affairs the place my mom was deported and it traumatized me. I needed my children to not undergo one thing like this and it’s very laborious,” she stated, crying.
