Feinstein introduces bill to help deported Oakland nurse and family

Sen. Dianne Feinstein meets with Maria Mendoza-Sanchez (right) and her family at their Oakland home last month. Sen. Dianne Feinstein meets with Maria Mendoza-Sanchez (right) and her family at their Oakland home last month. Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 10 Caption Close Feinstein introduces bill to help deported Oakland nurse and family 1 / 10 Back to Gallery

Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced a bill that would provide green cards to an Oakland nurse and her husband whose deportation to Mexico last month split up their family.

Maria Mendoza-Sanchez and Eusebio Sanchez, who worked as a truck driver, were deported Aug. 16 to their native Mexico after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials rejected arguments by them and Feinstein that they deserved a reprieve after spending more than two decades in the country.

The couple raised four children, who each have legal status, owned their home in Oakland, did not have criminal records, and had been granted earlier delays of deportation. Their removal prompted outrage from officials at Highland Hospital, where Mendoza-Sanchez worked as an oncology nurse, and Feinstein visited the couple after reading a Chronicle story about them.

“The Sanchez family is the epitome of the American dream, and the deportation of Maria and Eusebio was shameful,” Feinstein said Wednesday, a day after submitting what is known as a private bill. “No case better captures the callousness of this president’s immigration policies and the failure by the Department of Homeland Security to distinguish between families and criminals.”

The family’s case highlighted big shifts under way since President Trump took office and made nearly every immigrant in the country without documentation a priority for removal.

A spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the couple’s case had gone through an exhaustive review by the immigration court system, which found Mendoza-Sanchez and her husband had no “legal basis to remain.”

The family took their 12-year-old son, Jesus, to Mexico with them, but decided to leave behind their three daughters, concluding they had better opportunities in the U.S.

The youngest, Elizabeth, a 16-year-old high school sophomore and U.S. citizen by birth, is being raised by Vianney, a 23-year-old UC Santa Cruz graduate who is protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Vianney’s future is uncertain, though, after the Trump administration this week decided to phase out the program.

The third daughter, Melin, is a 21-year-old UC Santa Cruz senior.

“Vianney’s determination to make sure her sisters are properly cared for, after dealing with the crushing experience of being separated from her parents, is a testament to her remarkable strength and resilience,” Feinstein wrote in her bill.

Feinstein said the deportation was a “tremendous loss for their children and community … this family warrants our compassion, and I will keep fighting for them.”

Private bills are rarely signed into law, and the prospects of Feinstein’s being approved by President Trump appear slim. The senator also filed the bill as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, which sets military spending and policy.

Hamed Aleaziz is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: haleaziz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @haleaziz