A couple who had been living in the United States illegally for 35 years have been deported back to their home country — but their daughter and various leftist media outlets have characterized them as “victims” of an unjust system.
Gladys and Nelson Gonzalez, now 55 and 59 respectively, entered the U.S. “illegally” in 1989, an ICE spokesperson told ABC News. According to their daughter Stephanie Gonzalez, 27, they were attempting to flee violence and persecution in their native Colombia.
“At the time my parents left Bogota, the city and country was known as the murder capital of the world,” Stephanie said. “They fled the rampant drug violence that they were forced to live in.”
By 2000, when Democratic President Bill Clinton was still in office, an immigration judge found “no legal basis” for the Gonzalezes to remain in the U.S. The couple was given the courtesy of a voluntary removal order, which gave them time to make arrangements to leave of their own accord without the necessity of a deportation order.
‘They fell victim to predatory immigration practices that were pretty flagrant.’
Rather than follow through with the voluntary removal, however, the couple apparently attempted to fight the court’s decision.
California immigration lawyer Monica Crooms, who began working with the Gonzalezes in 2018, claimed that they sought the help of immigration attorneys who, it turns out, should never have been trusted. Some of them were later disbarred and at least one of them was not actually a licensed attorney at all, she indicated.
“[The Gonzalezes] were looking for a way to legalize their status in the way that was available to them at the time in the ’90s,” Crooms said. “Unfortunately, they fell victim to predatory immigration practices that were pretty flagrant.”
During their time in the U.S., the Gonzalezes regularly checked in for supervised appointments with immigration officials, ABC News reported, but by 2021, their case had been closed. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals — a notoriously left-leaning court — dismissed their petition for review in 2022, Stephanie said.
Despite their awareness that they were in the U.S. illegally and the repeated reminders that legal residency was by no means certain in their case, the Gonzalezes and their daughters were apparently surprised when they were arrested during one of those regular immigration appointments back in February. They were then soon scheduled for deportation.
“They separated them in separate rooms. They were in rooms alone for hours with no food,” Stephanie claimed. “They had handcuffed them from their hands or from their wrists and from their ankles.”
Stephanie also accused ICE and other immigration officials of treating her parents like “animals” and “criminals,” even though they have no criminal record aside from their illegal entry into the country.
ICE confirmed that the couple had no other criminal history but reiterated that they were nevertheless in the country “illegally.” A spokesperson said deporting “individuals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws” was part of “routine operations” that have primarily targeted illegal aliens with a history of violence or other criminal activity.
The agency also confirmed that the Gonzalezes have been deported back to Colombia.
‘I think they will be able to come back.’
Stephanie believes her parents have been victimized by “the system.” “My parents loved this country, sacrificed all of their money to try to gain citizenship, but were failed by the system,” she said.
“They should’ve, at worst, been given the dignity to settle their affairs and fly themselves back to a country they haven’t lived in since the 1980s, and not thrown into a detention center that is just another name for a jail, without any knowledge of when they’d be released.”
Media outlets reporting on the story have made clear that they sympathize with the Gonzalezes. The two have “no criminal record,” both ABC News and NBC Los Angeles noted in their respective headlines.
In its headline, CNN noted that the Gonzalezes raised “3 citizens” during their time in America.
CNN also made much of the couple’s Christian beliefs and philanthropic work. They “led Bible studies at their Southern California church and volunteered at food pantries during the Covid-19 pandemic,” the outlet said.
Stephanie hopes her parents will be able to return to the U.S. someday. “We’ve been able to raise $65,000 to help my parents rebuild their new life in Colombia but also to pay for the best attorneys so that one day they can come back,” she said.
However, their return isn’t likely for at least a decade because of federal law. “I think they will be able to come back. I just — I don’t foresee that being within the next 10 years,” she admitted.
“And if there is a serious change to the immigration law, then there’s no telling.”
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Gonzalez, Colombia, Illegal aliens, Immigration, Ice, Deportation, Politics
