Wife And Kids May Get Boot
By Luara Czekaj, SUN MEDIA

David Barry and Jorleny Vargas celebrated their ninth wedding anniversary this past January.

The couple have three children, two from Vargas' previous relationship and one son together.

But the family is fighting to stay together after Canadian immigration officials decided that Barry and Vargas are not in a "bona fide" relationship, setting the wheels in motion for Vargas and her two children's deportation to Costa Rica.

"The deportation proceeding is ongoing and it's one step away from her being put on a plane and two of our three children," said Barry.

Their third child, Joshua, is a Canadian citizen and could either stay with his dad or leave with his mom.

"This is ripping the heart out of a seven-year-old child, this is ripping the heart out of my two other children," he said.

Barry is not currently living at the family home after he was criminally charged with mischief and assault following a Dec. 23, 2006, incident in which he and his wife were fighting and police were called.

An immigration spokeswoman said Barry's criminal proceedings are not a factor in the case.

"It's not a case of he was charged with assault. They are not together any more and that's why she's being removed," said Karen Shadd-Evelyn, spokeswoman with Citizenship and Immigration Canada. "She was under a removal order because her sponsorship application was not approved."

Shadd-Evelyn said the approval was not granted because the officer who worked on her case was "not convinced that it was a bona fide relationship."

The family's lawyer, Zarko Tatomirovic-Manula, said immigration's questioning of the couple's relationship after nearly a decade together and having a child is "baloney."

"Sometimes, this is the problem I have with immigration is that one person decides the fate of a family and that person decided this wasn't a bona fide marriage, which doesn't make any sense," he said.

Despite immigration's denials that the charges against Barry hastened the removal process of his wife, Tatomirovic-Manula said it wasn't until after Barry was barred from contact with his wife that immigration officials came calling.

Barry, 58, a Canadian citizen, met Vargas, 31, and her two children, Andrew, 13, and Karolina, 11, more than a decade ago while he was working for a Canadian mining company in Costa Rica.

They moved to Canada in 1997. They married and had son Joshua.

"We don't want to separate, we love each other immensely," he said.

In broken English, Vargas said that she wants to stay with her husband in Canada.

"I do very bad," she said. "I can't eat, I can't sleep."