Asylum anguish
Queens family sad at missing detained dad for the holiday
AS HIS wife and twin daughters sit down for Thanksgiving dinner, Juan Villacis will remain behind bars in fear of deportation.
Family members rallied in Queens Wednesday in support of the Colombian national who is facing banishment from the U.S. despite the threat of persecution in his homeland.
The 53-year-old physical therapist was detained Nov. 15 after a routine check-in as required as part of his asylum request.
But instead of receiving an expected stay of deportation, Villacis was separated from his family, locked in a New Jersey jail cell and subjected to getting kicked out of the country any day.
“My father means the world to me,” said one of Villacis’ twin daughters, Liany Villacis, 22.
Villacis said the family left Colombia in 2000 when they began receiving death threats related to their political activism.
The Villacises moved to Ecuador, but after less than a year, the police said they couldn’t guarantee their safety.
The next stop was the United States, where they arrived with a B2 visitors visa at a time when the girls were 5.
Their asylum bid was denied as was their appeal years later in 2013. Since then, they have received a stay of removal, working, paying taxes and going to school.
Liany Villacis graduated this year from Baruch College with a degree in finance.
Her sister, who asked to remain anonymous because her status expires soon, is scheduled to graduate in December with a degree in communications.
“I was fortunate and I graduated in June,” Liany Villacis said.
“It was one of the best days for me — just seeing my parents down in the crowd, just crying — just pure happiness,” she said.
“My sister is a student graduating from Baruch in December, and it would mean everything to us if my father could be there, and my sister could have that same feeling that I had.”
Juan’s wife, Liany Guerrero, is so worried about her husband’s fate that she nearly overlooked her own immigration issues. Guerrero, 57, said she was given until Jan. 15, 2018, to voluntarily leave the country or be deported.
“They gave me no time,” Guerrero told the Daily News on Tuesday. “It’s impossible. They said I have to have a oneway ticket to Colombia. They can remove me at any time.”
On Wednesday, Guerrero broke down as she contemplated a future separated from her children.
“I think we deserve to live in this country,” Guerrero said through tears. “I pay my taxes. I do everything. I work. My daughters study very hard.”
The family’s lawyer, Jillian Hopman, said Juan Villacis has paid his taxes every year since 2002, has had no arrests, supports his entire family, and takes his elderly mother, who is a U.S. citizen, to all of her doctor’s appointments.
“They’re ripping an entire family apart,” Hopman said. “It needs to be stopped.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not return a request for comment.