A California couple who had lived in the US for 35 years were deported to Colombia despite having no criminal record or legal problems.

Gladys and Nelson Gonzalez have lived in the United States since 1989. They have been law-abiding people and active members of the local community all this time. Their three adult daughters were born in California. In February, the senior Gonzalezes were arrested and deported to Colombia, writes CNN.

Photo: Zhanna Hapanovich | Dreamstime.com

The Gonzalez couple have been teaching Bible studies at their church in Southern California and volunteering at food pantries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“For nearly four decades, they have built their lives here — raising their daughters, giving back to their community, and recently welcoming their first biological grandchild,” their daughter Stephanie Gonzalez wrote on the page. GoFundMe, created for the family. - And now they are being made into criminals."

On the subject: Immigration officers asked to take part in deportations, although they are supposed to deal with legal migrants

In February, Stephanie's parents showed up for an immigration court hearing in Santa Ana, as they had done since 2000.

But this visit ended quite differently.

On February 21, the couple was arrested, handcuffed and sent to a federal detention center, where they spent three weeks before being deported to Colombia.

“They knew they were going to have to leave and they planned to do it, but not the way it happened,” said Monica Crooms, an Orange County immigration attorney who began working with the couple in 2018.

"We did not expect them to be detained and taken into custody. Unfortunately, this is not the first time. It is happening all over the country," Crooms said, referring to changes in U.S. immigration policy.

The Gonzalez couple spent many years looking for a legal path to citizenship, paid their taxes regularly and never had any problems with the law.

Ideally, the lawyer said, they should have been given time to get their affairs in order and say goodbye to their daughters and grandson. But that didn't happen.

"We had to take their car out of the parking lot and we couldn't even say goodbye to them," Stephanie said.

"No legal basis" to stay in the US

Gladys and Nelson arrived in the United States without authorization in 1989, according to a March 14 statement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

They didn't have visas when they arrived, Crooms said, but were allowed to apply for asylum. She and Stephanie said the couple were fleeing crime in Colombia.

In 2000, an immigration judge found no legal basis for Gladys and Nelson to remain in the United States, and they were issued a voluntary departure order. This order gives a person a certain amount of time to leave the country at their own expense and avoid a formal deportation order, ICE explained.

“They were looking for a way to legitimize their status using the opportunities that were available in the 1990s,” the immigration lawyer explained. “Unfortunately, the couple became victims of abusive immigration practices that were common then.”

According to Crooms, the couple did not plan to leave the United States after receiving the order, since the Gonzalezes' lawyer at the time misled them by promising to appeal the decision and the possibility of legalization.

“After consulting with other lawyers, they quickly realized they were in a very difficult situation,” Crooms concluded. Over the years, they had spent thousands of dollars on legal help, but some of the professionals they hired were not immigration lawyers at all.

According to ICE, Gladys, 55, and Nelson, 59, “exhausted all legal options to remain in the United States between March 2000 and August 2021, including before the Board of Immigration Appeals in 2001 and 2018, before the USCIS in 2010, and before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 9.”

For two decades, the couple had been under supervision under a Homeland Security Department program that allows people with deportation orders to remain in the U.S. by reporting for annual screening as they prepare to leave the country, Crooms said.

The ICE officer in charge of deporting the Gonzalez couple did not insist that they leave before 2018, but assured them that if their status could not be regularized, it was time for them to leave, Crooms said.

Escape from the 'murder capital of the world'

When the Gonzalez couple left the Colombian capital, they feared for their lives.

"When my parents left Bogota, the city and country were known as the murder capital of the world," Stephanie wrote. "They were fleeing the rampant drug gang violence."

She believes that after applying for asylum, the parents became "victims of blatant immigration fraud by their first lawyer."

"Their first so-called lawyer wasn't even a lawyer. He just took their money and then his office closed down due to a criminal investigation," Stephanie said.

She explained: "There was a lot of fraud in U.S. immigration law in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and my parents' subsequent attorneys were also disbarred. Citizenship was difficult to obtain, and my parents only had one chance to submit documents that the first a-la attorney had filed incorrectly."

For 25 years, the Gonzalezes sought a new trial of their case. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the couple's request in 2022.

"The problem is the immigration system, not my parents"

According to ICE, under U.S. law, those who are unlawfully present in the country can take legal steps to avoid deportation. “However, after exhausting all legal procedures and appeals, they must comply with a final order of removal from an immigration judge, and ICE is required to enforce that order,” the agency said in a statement.

The Gonzalezes' daughter and lawyer believe the couple was treated unfairly.

“My parents loved this country. They spent all their money to get citizenship, but the system failed them,” Stephanie concluded. “At worst, the authorities should have allowed them to leave for a country they had not lived in since the 1980s, instead of throwing them in a detention center that is actually a prison, with no explanation about when they will be released.”

The couple were separated and held by ICE for about three weeks in detention centers in California, Arizona and Louisiana. The Gonzalezes' deportation was delayed in part by government error, Crooms said.

"The Department of National Security lost their passports," Crooms said. As a result, the Colombian government had to issue new documents for them to leave.

The couple's daughters hope that their parents will one day be able to return to the United States. However, due to a 1996 law, they will not be able to apply for entry for 10 years.

The family is now focused on helping Gladys and Nelson adjust to life in Colombia.

“We were able to raise $65 to help my parents establish a new life in Colombia and pay for the best lawyers so they could one day return,” Stephanie shared.

Crooms has accompanied the couple to their annual immigration checks since 2018, but they did not ask her to come with them this year. If they had called her, she would have advised them to prepare for departure and get their affairs in order.

"Anyone who is under a supervision order and is required to report must be aware that they may be detained and deported," the lawyer reminded.

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Crooms and Stephanie believe the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration violations will continue to impact people like Gladys and Nelson.

However, minority US citizens and legal immigrants also found themselves at risk.

"The number of people being detained and sent to these places is horrifying. I hope this administration realizes the devastating impact this will have on so many American families," Stephanie concluded.

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