(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Maria Santiago Garcia speaks at a rally in Salt Lake City, Wednesday December 13, 2017. Garcia has a deportation order to return to her home country of Guatemala this month, and despite applying for a stay of removal Monday, her request will likely be denied. She is the mother of four young children, who are all U.S. citizens, and they plan to go to the airport Christmas night to catch a flight to Guatemala with their mother in the early morning hours of Dec. 26.
As Maria Santiago Garcia awaits final word on whether she will be deported to her native Guatemala, the lack of opportunity for her four children in what, to them, will be a foreign land weighs heavy on her mind.
“It’s difficult because in the U.S., you experience hardships, but it’s nothing like that of my country,” Santiago Garcia said through a translator Wednesday night.
Santiago Garcia, who does not have U.S. residency documentation, says she fled a life of violence when she entered the country illegally 15 years ago. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says she arrived Aug. 31, 2004.
Now, after remaining here for more than a decade, Santiago Garcia and her children — who range in age from 3 to 11 — probably will spend the end of Christmas night in the airport, waiting to board their 1 a.m. flight.
Though her children were born in the U.S. and do not have Guatemalan citizenship, she is bringing them with her. The family wants to stay together, she said.
Deportation is likely, but it isn’t a guarantee. Santiago Garcia applied Monday for a stay of removal. It could be her last chance to remain, though an ICE official said the stay would be a temporary courtesy.
“Pursuing repeated stays is not a viable means for an alien to permanently postpone their required return to their country of origin,” according to the statement provided by ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok.
Santiago Garcia was told by her attorney Wednesday that her request likely would be denied. She has no idea when she will get a final ruling.
“I’m waiting for a miracle,” she said.
About 40 supporters gathered in the subfreezing temperatures for a candlelight vigil Wednesday night at Salt Lake City’s Library Square to support the family. People bundled in big jackets, hats and scarfs sniffled and cried as they voiced their support and said prayers for Santiago Garcia and her children.
“These are not criminals, these are families,” said Cynda Nygaard. She said she has long fought against what she calls unjust policies toward immigrants and homeless people. “We’re all immigrants.”
According to Rusnok, Santiago Garcia was first issued an order of removal by a federal immigration judge in 2006. She was granted a six-month stay in September 2014 so she could obtain travel documents required for her to leave. In June 2015, a judge denied a motion to reopen her case.
At a rally in October, Santiago said, “I know they say that people who cross the border are criminals, but that‘s not who I am. I’m a mother who’s fighting for my family.”
In recent months, Santiago Garcia has sold homemade tamales to support her family. She doesn’t know how she will be able to afford things like asthma medication for her son in Guatemala.
“It’s difficult because here you can get a job and make $10 an hour, while over there I can work the whole day and make the same amount,” she said.
Unidad Inmigrante, an immigrant advocacy group, has helped raise $1,845 to give Santiago Garcia and her children so they can afford food and other necessities when they get to Guatemala. But their assistance will only go toward the beginning of what may be years of struggle.
She said she no longer has connections in Guatemala and worries that her children won’t have the opportunities they need to fulfill their dreams. Her 9-year-old daughter, Sarai Reyes, said she fears her dreams will be impossible in Guatemala.
“I’d like to go to college,” Sarai said. “I would study how to be a doctor, and get my diploma and my Master diploma and then work and have my life.”
In Guatemala, Sarai said, she plans to watch people so she can learn to work as hard as they do.
The return to Guatemala scares Santiago Garcia, who said she and her family might fall victim to the same type of violence that led her to leave in the first place. With help from the father of two of her children, she has found temporary housing there. The father of her other two children is not in the picture, she said.
Despite the U.S. government forcing her and her children back to a land she feels is unsafe and lacks the opportunity she cherishes in the United States, Santiago Garcia said she doesn’t resent the people trying to deport her.
“I wouldn’t blame the entire government,” she said. “Obviously there is a broken system and there are a few select people that continue to make it more difficult for people like me.”
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