A single mother in Utah, active in the LDS Church, is the latest victim of Trump’s cruel deportation policies. She is the sole caretaker of both her U.S. citizen son who has mild cerebral palsy and epilepsy and her 86-year old mother. But DHS, under Secretary John Kelly, has callously decided to remove her from her home and send her back to Colombia.
“Isabel” [a pseudonym] entered the United States more than twenty years ago on a fiancee visa. While she didn’t ultimately marry that fiancee, she built a life here and became active in the Church of Jesus Christ for Latter-Day Saints. According to The Salt Lake Tribune, she received a deportation order in 1997 but was granted a stay due to her son’s ailments. Then:
ICE: “priorities have shifted”
Last month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement informed the woman that its “priorities have shifted,” according to [a spokeswoman for Mormon Women for Ethical Government (MWEG) Sharlee] Mullins Glenn, and that she must leave the country by April 6.The immigrant had apparently been working toward legal residency for years, Mullins Glenn said, and her attorney was out of the country Thursday. Isabel has an “exemplary” record, Mullins Glenn said, and is a woman of courage and faith who is active in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her son had recently submitted an application to serve a Mormon service mission, Mullins Glenn noted.
Isabel to be deported despite community protests
On the day of her scheduled deportation, neighbors and allies congregated at the Salt Lake City International Airport, standing fiercely beside her. When her deportation was delayed due to paperwork, advocates, attorneys and Senator Orrin Hatch’s office coordinated to try and stop the deportation once and for all. Unfortunately, it looks like their efforts will be unsuccessful.
According to Lynn Tramonte, Deputy Director of America’s Voice Education Fund:
When it comes to deportation decisions — which can be life or death decisions for both immigrants and their loved ones — Secretary Kelly has callously thrown all common sense out the window. The current DHS policy towards immigrants is one of unrelenting, indiscriminate mass deportation. Trump said this would be his policy, and Secretary Kelly is carrying it out completely. Separating a mom from her disabled child — a U.S. citizen — and elderly mother is utterly cruel and un-American.
