An Orange County couple who got here to the U.S. with out authorization some 35 years in the past, raised three daughters and now have a brand new grandson had been deported to Colombia earlier this week, in keeping with media experiences.
Nelson Gonzalez, 59, and his spouse Gladys Gonzalez, 55, initially entered the states close to San Ysidro earlier than finally settling in Laguna Niguel and beginning their household.
Whereas the couple tried quite a few authorized avenues to stay within the nation through the years, together with appeals to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies, the Ninth Circuit Court docket of Appeals and the Board of Immigration Appeals, a spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement advised The Orange County Register that the Gonzalez’s had “exhausted all authorized choices to stay within the U.S. between March 2000 and August 2021,” and had been finally in violation of immigration legislation.
Their three daughters, Gabby, 23, Jessica, 33, and Stephanie, 27, all U.S. residents, advised KTLA that they had been devastated after they realized their mother and father had been detained on Feb. 21 throughout an everyday check-in with U.S. immigration officers.
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Gladys and Nelson Gonzalez are seen with their household. (Gonzalez Household)
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Gladys and Nelson Gonzalez are pictured with their three daughters (Gonzalez Household)
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Gladys and Nelson Gonzalez are pictured collectively and with their grandson. (Gonzalez Household)
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Gladys and Nelson Gonzalez moved to the U.S. from Colombia and raised a household in Orange County, California. (Gonzalez Household)
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Gladys and Nelson Gonzalez are pictured with their grandson. (Gonzalez Household)
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Gladys and Nelson Gonzalez are seen with their three daughters and younger grandson (heart). (Gonzalez Household)
“They had been put into handcuffs by their wrists and ankles and handled as criminals earlier than getting to those detention facilities,” Stephanie Gonzalez told KTLA. “All they stated is that they prolonged their keep, although yearly they’ve had permission to be right here and so they’re law-abiding residents who present up and are doing their responsibility to examine in with immigration and say, ‘Hey I’m right here. I’m not hiding or doing something unsuitable.’ Then they only arrested them like that.”
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Gladys and Nelson, neither of whom have a legal document, had been initially held on the Adelanto Detention Middle in San Bernardino County earlier than being transferred to a facility in Arizona and later Louisiana.
Stephanie advised The Register that although her mother and father have been traumatized by all the things that’s transpired, they’re grateful to now not be in detention facilities and have made contact with household in Colombia who’re serving to them begin a brand new life.
The 2 youthful sisters, Gabby and Stephanie, are at the moment residing with Jessica and her husband in Newport Seaside, and all have plans to go to their mother and father inside the coming weeks.
Members of the family additionally acknowledged they’re one in all many who’ve been affected by President Donald Trump and his administration’s objective of ramping up arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants all through the U.S.
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