Family express emotion after immigrant father receives long-awaited permanent residency
Family and supporters gathered Friday to cheer the decision of an immigration judge to approve an application for the cancellation of the removal of Jorge Zaldivar.
Jorge had been trying to obtain residency since after marrying his American wife Christina in 2005. It was a long and winding road of mistakes, bureaucracy and changing immigration enforcement.
"There is no more fear, there is no more hiding for us," Christina said.
Her husband's long odyssey included being deported for three years to Mexico, leaving his wife and five children in Colorado.
"This struggle should not have happened," said Gabriella Flora with the American Friends Service Committee that supported Jorge's efforts to seek residency.
Jorge came to the United States without permission in the 1990s, where he met his wife-to-be and was married back in 2005.
Soon after, they began the process of applying for a visa. It was complicated by a single-car traffic accident in 2008 that led to his arrest under Colorado's SB-90 law since repealed that required local law enforcement to report potentially undocumented people to federal authorities.
Later, he began to apply for cancellation of removal which would require proving that his family would face exceptional and extremely unusual hardship if he was sent back to Mexico.
Another aspect of the application involved proving that he had been in the U.S. for more than 10 years. While Jorge had been, he could not prove it. The application was denied.
In 2013, he applied for a program under the Obama Administration for a stay of removal based on the hardship of his children. That started a series of stays for years for five years, which ended in 2019 during the Trump Administration.
At one of his routine check-ins in late 2019, ICE took him into custody. He spent several months in the ICE detention facility in Aurora, then was deported in 2020. For three years he remained separated from his wife and children, including a son with scoliosis.
All through the process, his supporters said he complied with the law. But there were at times, errors and changing immigration enforcement actions.
"Nobody thought he was a bad guy. He didn't commit any crimes," said immigration attorney, Laura Lichter. "He had a beautiful family."
Though the years of his check-ins, his family remained nervous.
"There were times where I thought, where could I hide him?" said daughter Josefyna Carpio, now the mother of his grandchild. "Where can I put him? To not have them come and take him from us," she expressed.
After her father's deportation, the family carried on without him as Christina and lawyers and activists pushed to get him residency.
"And she asked me very kindly, 'when they deported George out if I wanted to give up?'" said a tearful Christina about a discussion with their lawyer. "And she said 'no, if you're not going to give up, I won't give up.'"
In the fall of last year, an immigration judge opened the door for Jorge to return again to make an appeal.
After a December hearing, a judge ruled in his favor, granting approval for his application of cancellation of removal. That makes him a legal permanent resident. His green card is in the mail.
His American wife remains frustrated with the system, with its delays and errors, and the moving of goalposts.
"I feel like they shouldn't have the power to dismiss people like that because they stole years from my children. They stole years and money from me and my husband. Stuff that's irreplaceable. Time that they can't give back to us," she expressed.
She wants immediate immigration changes.
"They can start by closing jails. They can start by changing the laws. They can start by taking ICE out of our communities," she began. "It's not just immigrants, it's Americans who are tied to the immigrants. It's the communities that are tied to these people. Who suffer along with us. So it's justice for all."
Jorge will be eligible to apply for full citizenship in 4.5 years, according to his attorney.
