Mother of 6 tries to avoid deportation (Chicago Breaking News)

Mother of 6 tries to avoid deportation

Antonio Olivo, Chicago Tribune
October 20, 2008 at 12:00 PM

In what may be the first of similar battles in the waning months of the Bush administration, about 30 demonstrators rallied outside a federal immigration office in downtown Chicago today in an effort to delay the deportation of a mother of six.

Francisca Lino, 41, is scheduled to leave the country this week after she was arrested at a hearing in 2006 for what she thought was her application for legal permanent residency.

Arguing that her departure would put severe distress on her family, all of them either U.S. citizens or legal immigrants, U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) filed a petition to delay Lino's deportation for a year.

"They all rely on her to take care of them," Gutierrez said, noting that her husband, Diego, 34, was recovering from a stroke suffered shortly after her arrest.

Francisca Lino works in a chocolate factory in far west suburban Geneva, supporting her husband, her children and her mother-in-law, who has breast cancer, she said.

"I can't believe they could be so stone-hearted to not grant us an opportunity," she said, referring to federal officials.