Brenda Guzman-Sandoval, a married mother of five U.S. citizens, was deported earlier this monthafter advocacy efforts to keep her in the United States failed. Jose Luis Martinezwas deported in September of last year to Honduras, a place he hadn’t known since he left as a child more than two decades ago. Mirna Valenzuela was sent back to Mexico in December when a Tucson, Ariz. casino reported her to police after she won a $1,200 jackpot. Felipe Montes, the father of three U.S. citizen children, was deported to Mexico in 2010, and his children were put in foster care after his wife became unable to care for them. He more recently won custody of his kids, but was barred from remaining in the U.S. despite appeals to the federal government.
Under the Defense of Marriage Act, which is now under consideration by the Supreme Court, there was no way for Richard Dennis to stop his would-be husband, Jair Izquierdo, from being deported to Peru in 2010. Dennis said that Izquierdo is unhappy in Peru, which he first left because he had been harassed for being gay. He has been deported to Peru once before, but they have stayed together despite the obvious strains on their relationship, Dennis said. They see each other two or three times a year.
“I live my life in those two weekends when I’m able to go down to South America,” he said.
The Obama administration has disrupted a record number of lives in the name of proving to Republicans that it is tough when it comes to enforcement, promising the immigrant community a better future while it infuses their present lives with fear, uncertainty and heartbreak. For many of those whose lives have become currency in the political exchange, there will be no redemption.