Wife of U.S. veteran deported to Mexico
ORLANDO, Fla. — After multiple rejections in her bid to stay in the U.S., a mother of two married to a Polk County Marine veteran boarded a plane on Friday morning at Orlando International Airport bound for her native Mexico — forced to leave her American family behind.
“I’ve done everything humanly possible that I could have done to stay — over $20,000 spent on immigration lawyers,” said Alejandra Juarez, a 38-year-old undocumented immigrant who has lived in the U.S. for two decades.
On Friday morning, Juarez walked into the airport with her two daughters, pulling a lavender beach-themed suitcase.
As the time grew near for Juarez’s departure, her daughter Pamela, 16, threw herself into her mother’s arms and sobbed. Estela, 8, huddled nearby, clutching her pink smartphone.
“My mom is not a criminal,” Pamela said.
Juarez’s husband, Cuauhtemoc “Temo” Juarez, 41, will remain behind with Pamela. Estela soon will join Alejandra in Mexico because Temo, who runs a flooring business, travels frequently for work.
“It is going to be tough — hopefully, I don’t get in an accident or get hurt,” he said. “That’s one of the fears that I have, if something happens to me, it’s going to get worse for them.”
Temo Juarez, a naturalized citizen from Mexico who served a two-year combat deployment to Iraq with his Marine Corps Reserve unit and twice more overseas during his military career, will be working overtime to support his divided family.
“They’re punishing him for something that I did a long time ago. His only mistake was marrying me,” his wife said.
Her deportation is the culmination of a five-year odyssey since her undocumented status was revealed during a 2013 traffic stop. She was released under an order of supervision by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and required to check in with the local ICE office twice a year.
She was a low priority for being kicked out of the country, but that changed after Donald Trump became president. Trump has a “zero tolerance” immigration policy and ICE no longer exempts any undocumented immigrant from potential enforcement.
Even though the policy is hitting close to home, Temo Juarez said he doesn’t blame Trump for tearing his family apart. The self-described “super conservative” Republican voted for Trump but said he didn’t think the billionaire’s election would hasten his wife’s deportation.
“I ate my words,” he said. “Obviously, when Trump came in, everybody is (a) priority now.”
His wife first tried to enter the U.S. illegally in May 1998 by falsely claiming to a Customs and Border Patrol agent that she was an American citizen. Juarez admitted she is Mexican and said she was interrogated by agents and unwittingly signed paperwork to avoid six months at a federal detention center in exchange for being immediately released to return to Mexico.
It turned out she had signed a waiver that bans her future rights to a permanent resident card, visa or a path to naturalized citizenship.
Juarez briefly returned to Mexico but soon crossed over into the U.S. unnoticed. She and Temo married in 2000 and settled down in Central Florida. Temo said he knew his wife could eventually be deported if she was caught.