A Lincoln Park man’s decades-long bid to stay in the United States ended early Monday when he was deported to Mexico, relatives and activists said.
Jorge Garcia, 39, who came to the country with his family at age 10, was too old to seek protections under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. The landscaper with no criminal record had been seeking legal status for more than a decade and annually met with immigration officials, who had originally scheduled him to be deported in November.
His wife and teenage children saw him off at Detroit Metro Airport on Monday, on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, amid tears.
“It’s just a nightmare,” said Cindy Garcia, who married him in 2002. “You can’t even put it into words how it feels.”
Garcia’s wife was told he would not be allowed to return home for a decade. But she vowed to keep fighting on Monday. “We’re going to pray and get him back fast, faster than this paperwork that gave him a 10 year bar,” the mother of two said.
Khaalid Walls, northeast regional communications director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said since Monday was a federal holiday, he would have no comment until Tuesday.
Carrying signs reading “Stop separating families,” friends, supporters and volunteers with the advocacy group Michigan United stood nearby as Garcia departed to Mexico City.
“I don’t see the justice in this,” AJ Freer of UAW 600 said. “For a man who cares deeply and supports his family, obeys the law, pays taxes and has a history of helping others, I think ICE and the Federal Government of the United States acted cruelly to this family.”
The Associated Press contributed.