Deported Hawaii coffee farmer’s daughter hopes to keep farm operating

KAILUA-KONA (AP) — The daughter of a Hawaii coffee farmer who was deported months ago to his native Mexico said the farm will stay afloat if her father can return to the United States within a year.

The Kona coffee farmer’s daughter, Victoria Magana Ledesma, is managing the farm for her father, Andres Magana Ortiz, while also juggling an accounting internship at a Hawaii resort, West Hawaii Today reported. The 21-year-old said she is used to helping her father and is familiar with the work, but admits she has never done it on her own before.

“It’s a lot of responsibility to bear,” she said. “It’s really harder than I thought.”

Before he was deported, Magana Ortiz managed his own 522,720 square feet of land, and also looked over more than 6,000,000 square feet of farm lands owned by others.

Even with Magana Ortiz’s family and workers helping her before the first major round of harvesting, Magana Ledesma said the farm can’t survive without her father for long.

“He needs to be back within a year for this to stay the way it is,” she said.

Magana Ortiz came to the United States without a visa in 1989 when he was 15 years old. He began receiving deportation warnings in 2011, and later obtained work authorization and stays of deportation to avoid being sent back to his native country.

Magana Ortiz’s various applications to obtain legal status were rejected by officials, and he was deported before his daughter had the chance to file her own petition for her father to obtain permanent residence.