Reprieve for Guatemalan family facing deportation
Two-year extension granted after couple were lied to about their case status
A family that faced deportation after learning they’d been lied to by the person preparing their immigration paperwork has been granted a reprieve.
An advocate for the family of seven, originally from Guatemala, learned the news from Yolanda Duarte Martinez, the mother of the family.
“Yolanda called me to tell me they were allowed to stay for two years,” said Ingrid Flores of the Latin American Community Engagement Network, an Edmonton non-profit that’s been helping the family.
“They are so beyond happy, overjoyed. It is such wonderful news.”
The family has lived in Canada since 2011 and family members thought they had begun the permanent residency process with help from Martinez’s co-worker. The family had earlier applied for refugee status but was denied.
In November 2016, the Canadian Border Services Agency notified the family none of the documents required for the permanent residency application had been submitted, while Martinez’s co-worker dropped off the map.
The eldest child, Edison, has Guatemalan citizenship, while the other four children are citizens of the United States.
The family fled Alabama in 2011 due to a crackdown on undocumented immigrants, Flores said.
In June, the family received deportation orders.
The children were scheduled to be deported to the U.S. on July 10, while Yolanda, her husband Jilmar Picon Pineda and Edison were to return to Guatemala two days later, where they feared they would be killed by drug gangs.
St. Albert—Edmonton MP Michael Cooper said he met with the family and wrote to Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale asking to stay the removal order.
“This was a situation that really
They were taken for a ride by somebody they thought was a close friend. It wasn’t until recently they realized they’d been taken advantage of.
justified intervention on humanitarian and compassionate grounds,” said Cooper, a Conservative MP.
“They went about the process of applying for permanent residency in good faith, but they were taken for a ride by somebody they thought was a close friend,” he said.
“It wasn’t until recently they realized they’d been taken advantage of.”
Flores said the family is terrified of being torn between two countries.
Being returned to Guatemala, where they feared they would be targeted by drug cartels, amounted to a “death sentence,” Picon said at a news conference June 20.
Flores said the family was excited to learn of the reprieve. “They were just really excited,” she said. “I can’t express (it) in English because everything’s in Spanish. But it’s very emotional for them, they’re very grateful.”
She added the family has tracked down the woman who claimed to be helping them with their immigration paperwork and served her a lawsuit.
For Picon, Saturday’s Canada Day celebrations were special.
“Everybody is very happy about this,” he said. “Right now (we’re) celebrating the news.”