Deported Nicaraguan Mother
Hopeful Case Will Be Reviewed
Managua - Nicaraguan Maricela Soza, who was deported earlier this
week from the United States, where she had been living with her two
children, told EFE that she is hopeful U.S. authorities will review
her case so that she can be reunited with her family.
Soza, the mother of Cecia, 12, and Ronald, 9, who on Monday began a
hunger strike to prevent their mother's deportation, said she did
not support the minors' protest measure.
"The hunger strike has now ended and I managed to speak with them
(Thursday) and they're fine, thank God, even though we're apart,"
Maricela said in Managua, where relatives have taken her in.
Her children, one born in the United States after Soza arrived there
in 1997 illegally and the other a legal resident, are in the care of
an uncle, Fausto Soza, and Nora Sandigo, executive director of
American Fraternity, a Miami-based immigrant-rights organization
whose headquarters was the place where the children staged the
hunger strike.
Soza, 32, is awaiting news about her case in the Nicaraguan capital
and said she is sure that if it is reopened and reviewed the problem
will be resolved and she will be able to return and see her
children.
The young woman said she spoke Thursday with her husband, Ronald
Soza, who is in hiding because he also does not have legal status,
adding that he is in close contact with their attorney, Alfonso
Oviedo-Reyes, about everything related to the case.
Speaking about her situation in Nicaragua, Maricela said that thus
far the government has not offered her assistance nor has she
requested any.
She said she has no plans in Nicaragua and that, if she returns to
the United States, she will do so legally.
Soza had the chance to present her case before a U.S. immigration
judge, but the latter ruled against her and ordered her to be
deported, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigrations and Customs
Enforcement in Miami said.
The Nicaraguan, who was taken into custody by ICE agents on Dec. 19
in Pompano Beach, north of Miami, as she was going home after taking
Cecia to catch the school bus, had been held in a South Florida
immigration detention center for 42 days.
The Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry, for its part, said Thursday that
"there is no official reaction" to the case of the deportee.
The Soza children began their hunger strike three days after
American Fraternity asked the U.S. Supreme Court to issue an
injunction suspending the deportations of undocumented parents until
immigration reform is approved by Congress.
Filing the motion was attorney and Fraternidad Americana President
Alfonso Oviedo-Reyes, who is representing the children pro bono. He
says that the deportation of undocumented parents of the plaintiffs
is a violation of the civil rights of the minors.
He said that before 1996, minors with parents in this situation had
the right to go to court and have their immigration status resolved
if they could fulfill three conditions.
The conditions were that they had to have lived in this country for
more than seven years, be of good moral character and show that the
children would suffer if their parents were deported. |
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