Deportation order tears family apart (Worcester Telegram & Gazette)

Deportation order tears family apart

Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Clive McFarlane

It is easy for some to disavow his humanity and tell the illegal immigrant to go home.

It must have been easy, family members contend, for Kathy Leandro’s former boyfriend and father of her 7-year-old daughter, to turn in Kathy’s husband, Fabrizio Leandro, father of her 18-month-old daughter and illegal immigrant.

But in a world that grows smaller every day, it is getting increasingly difficult to escape a simple truth — without compassion and fairness, the laws of a nation can be like a cancerous growth that silently eats away at its soul.

Karyn Wigren, Kathy’s mother and a Worcester resident, understands that now.

Ms. Wigren, her husband, Ms. Leandro and Ms. Leandro’s three siblings are representative of the hard-working American family. They live by the sweat of their brows and support their community by volunteering time and effort to various causes, such as running a baseball league for 16- to 18-year-olds.

Before the Leandros’ marriage and the subsequent arrest of Mr. Leandro, illegal immigration was never a dinner-table topic in the Wigren household.

Now it is consuming their lives.

In fact, Ms. Wigren is now a big advocate of immigration reform.

“We are about to say goodbye to someone who means the world to my daughter and his child,” she said.

“He is a phenomenal human being and we may not see him again for 10 years, if ever. It is tearing my family apart.”

Ms. Wigren is not asking any special favors of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. What irks her is the organization’s seeming disregard for the rights she believes illegal immigrants have under the American Constitution.

The family knew Mr. Leandro had entered the country illegally and that to gain legal status he would have to return to Brazil and file for re-entry into the United States.

Generally, an illegal immigrant who is deported is barred from returning to the United States for 10 years, but because Mr. Leandro is married to Ms. Leandro, he was eligible for a waiver that could potentially have him returning in 2-1/2 years.

But Ms. Leandro and her family are beginning to understand it doesn’t matter how well they stick to the script.

Mr. Leandro’s fate now rests on the discretion of ICE and the Brazilian government, and so far there is little to be hopeful about.

The family was lucky to have obtained an attorney when Mr. Leandro was arrested.

Had they not done so, he could have ended up in any of a number of ICE holding cells around the country and without the ability to contact family members.

Then, just two weeks before he is to leave the country, ICE told them they had lost Mr. Leandro’s file, including his passport.

They suggested the family contact the Brazilian consulate, which needed the original records confirming his Brazilian nationality in order to issue him travel documents.

Of course, all his official papers were in his lost ICE file.

Late yesterday, ICE called to say they had found Mr. Leandro’s passport, but the call raised more questions than answers.

Meanwhile, Ms. Leandro has moved back in with her mother, as she struggles financially to raise her children and the money — she estimates it will cost over $10,000 — to complete the process she hopes will bring her husband home to her and his child.

As part of the waiver process, she has to prove that it wouldn’t be easier for her to move to Brazil with her children.

“I can’t be with someone I love because they didn’t come here legally,” she said.

“I understand that, but I just don’t feel we have a chance to make things right.

“If I have to take my kids to Brazil and live there, I will.”

Ms. Wigren would like to console her daughter, to tell her a process is in place to bring about a good resolution.

But after what she has seen of the system so far, she has a sinking feeling that the battle has been lost and she feels for her daughter.

“She didn’t commit a crime,” Ms. Wigren said. “She married a man she loves.”