The “dreamer” Karumi Durán has not stopped crying in recent days. Her little baby is sick and she cannot take care of her because a mistake in an immigration petition has left her trapped in Mexico and with a ten-year sentence that prevents her from returning to the United States , where she lived a lifetime and her family remains.
What all started with an immigration petition that filled the couple with enthusiasm has turned into a huge problem that they still do not know how they will be able to solve, says the young woman to Efe in a call from the capital of Mexico, while her husband, Roberto Reyes, listens to her in the city of Tyler, in Texas.
All their hopes fell to the ground when the United States Consulate in Ciudad Juárez denied Durán a request to adjust his status last March.
The couple explains that, despite the fact that Durán was covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program ( DACA ) from 2013, I ventured To make this request in order for her to obtain permanent residence thanks to the fact that Roberto is a US citizen.
“The lawyer told us it was going to be easy” , Reyes and Durán say in unison.
But it was not like that. Durán does not have a legal entry into the United States, a document that is obtained when a foreigner enters legally through a U.S. border port, and therefore his adjustment request could not be successful.
The provisional pardon
A large number of “dreamers” have been able to obtain legal entry to the United States after leaving the country with a travel permit known as “advance parole”. Durán did not request this permission either.
Since the former president Donald Trump put the DACA program in check, activists and even academics such as Professor Armando Vásquez Ramos, coordinator of the Center for California-Mexico Studies (CMSC) and the Dreamers Study Abroad Program, of the University of Long Beach, California fought to keep these permits in force.
“The ‘advance parole’, which is also obtained for educational or humanitarian reasons, has served many ‘dreamers’ to adjust their status, that is why we have always fought for it to be maintained ”, emphasizes the professor.
It was not until the arrival of the president, Joe Biden , that these travel permits are again being issued by the Immigration Service and Citizenship (USCIS).
Durán and Reyes admit that they were unaware of these requirements and that they trusted the legal advice of e his lawyer to start the process in 2017, the same year as the Trump administration tried to end DACA .
One more victim
What hurts Durán the most these days is not being able to be with his baby, barely eight months old.
“For more than a week he has been vomiting, and does not want to eat. Alison was used to seeing me every day, for me to take care of her “, says the” dreamer. “
In the absence of Durán, Alison is cared for by her maternal grandparents, who live in College Station, also in Texas, but located 149 miles southeast of Tyler, where the couple has a home.
“We decided that I would stay working because we know that we are going to need money, and we have many bills to pay, the house, the lawyer, many things” , explains Reyes, who He is an architect by profession.
The young woman is sure that her baby is resenting her absence, and that of her father. “We have already done everything the doctor said but she is still ill,” she insists.
Petition to the Biden government
After learning about the couple’s case, several voices in Texas are calling for Durán’s return, especially College Station, where the two Hispanics were educated.
The congresswoman Sylvia Garcia has joined the efforts to make a call to the Department of Homeland Security, led by Alejandro Mayorkas , to allow Durán to return to the country.
“We were a very united family and Now we are completely separated ”, says Reyes, referring to the fact that Durán could not stay in any Mexican border city after his case was denied because she and her family are from the country’s capital.
Although the couple has evaluated sending Alison to Mexico this step cannot be taken because the baby does not have a passport and is ill.
” I only ask that they let me go back to my daughter and my husband, that’s the only thing ”, Durán pleads as he makes a list of all the efforts they have made to become a model couple: they both have master’s degrees in their careers, they own a home and parents of a beautiful baby.
Alison’s health is not the only concern of the “dreamer.” Her husband has lost weight and the situation is also making him sick.
“I only ask you to have compassion on us, to touch your heart” , says Durán, who also makes a warning call to other immigrants to take an example and not have to live this situation.