Man, 59, And His Wife, 55, Deported From America After Living There For 35 Years

• A man and his wife have been deported from the United States of America where they have lived for the better part of their lives
• Nelson Gonzalez, 59 and Gladys Gonzalez, 55 have lived in the USA for 35 years after moving there from Colombia in 1989
• They had their three daughters in the US, but now they have been picked up and deported by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement

A man and his wife who have lived in America since they were young have been picked up and deported by US ICE.

Nelson Gonzalez, 59, and Gladys Gonzalez, 55, arrived in the US in 1989 as young people in search of a better life.

The problem is that they did not come with a visa and they have lived in the US since then, trying unsuccessfully to legalise their stay.

Colombian couple without US visa deported by ICE

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They had no visas when they entered the USA, but they were permitted to apply for asylum.

In 2000, a US court found no legal reason to allow them to stay in the US and they were ordered to leave the country voluntarily.

The order to leave voluntarily gives illegal immigrants a certain amount of time to leave the country at their own expense to avoid a deportation order.

They had managed to stay in the US since then while reporting at least once a year to the immigration court.

Nelson Gonzalez and his wife picked up in Santa Ana

But when they reported for checks in Santa Ana on February 21, after Donald Trump took office, they were instead arrested and forcefully sent back to Colombia.

Gladys and Nelson Gonzalez have lived in California for 35 years and even had their daughters there.

One of their daughters, Stephanie Gonzalez said her parents were being treated like criminals.

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She said:

“For nearly four decades, they have built a life here, raising three daughters, giving back to their community, and recently welcoming their first grandchild. Now, they are being treated as criminals.”

Monica Crooms, an Orange County-based immigration attorney who started working with the couple in 2018 said the couple never expected deportation.

She told CNN:

“They did expect that they would need to depart and were planning to do so, but not in the way that it happened. We didn’t expect that they would be apprehended and held in custody. And again, it’s not really unique to them anymore. It’s happening across the country."

Nelson and Gladys' daughters opened a GoFundMe account to help them raise money to enable them to resettle in Colombia.

So far, $65,000 has been raised for the deported couple.

Visas to use while travelling to the US

Earlier, Legit.ng reported that the administration of President Donald Trump of the Republican Party has stepped up the deportation of illegal immigrants in the United States of America (USA).

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This has made life difficult for undocumented immigrants who are living in the US, as they stand the risk of being deported.

It is therefore imperative that future immigrants to the USA should know what types of visas they can use to enter the US legally.

Proofreading by Nkem Ikeke, copy editor at Legit.ng.

Source: Legit.ng