The deportation of an unpunished Colombian couple with three American children has been mentioned in the United States.
Now the couple is back in Colombia while their daughters raise money to get them back.
“No one deserves to go through this,” they write in a statement.
The Colombian couple Gladys and Nelson Gonzalez came to the United States in 1989 to escape the uncertain situation in their home country, and has for the past 35 years built up a new life in Orange County in Southern California.
They are unpunished and have three American children.
But a month ago, their world was turned upside down when officials from the US Migration Authority (ICE) decided to grasp first Mr and then Mrs. Gonzalez after a routine check.
“The official was cruel”
This as a step in the ongoing mass deportations that President Donald Trump joined election last fall.
The couple – who over the years must have struggled to stay in the United States on a legal basis – were first held in another California place before they were moved to first Arizona and then Louisiana.
– The official was cruel, says their daughter Stephanie to Fox 11 Los Angeles.
Back in Colombia
The couple’s three daughters soon started a digital collection box, which at the time of writing has reached over $ 66,000 (about SEK 670,000).
The couple Gonzalez has now been sent back Colombia where they are reported to be safe.
The money for the collection should, among other things, be earmarked for covering legal costs in attempts to get them back to the United States.
More deportations under both Obama and Biden
Donald Trump has lowered the bar to deport paperless – now the deportations are not only aimed at people with the criminal past but at anyone in the United States illegally.
During a twelve -month period that ended in September last fall, Ice deported over 270,000 people to 192 countries.
However, this happened under Joe Biden’s presidency and was the highest figure in ten years, when over 315,000 were deported under Barack Obama, reports the News Agency Ap.
The highest figure under Trump’s leadership is from 2019, when 267,000 were deported.