DETROIT – Inside a room in his aunt's home in Mexico, Jorge Garcia spends most of his days alone.

Separated from his wife and two children in metro Detroit, the 40-year-old father feels isolated, struggling to find work and make connections in a land he hasn't lived in for 30 years.

One year ago, the man from Lincoln Park, Michigan, was deported to Mexico. His emotional departure was captured in a Detroit Free Press story and picked up by media across the U.S. as immigration emerged as an explosive issue over the past year.

Born in Mexico, Garcia was brought to the U.S. when he was 10 years old by an undocumented adult and had lived in America for 30 years, working and paying taxes to help support his wife and two teenage children. He had no criminal record, but was too old to qualify for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), which allows the children of undocumented immigrants to live in the U.S.

Now, amid divisive debate in the country over immigration and President Donald Trump's calls for a border wall, Garcia remains stuck in Mexico, unable to even get an appointment with the U.S. Embassy's office in Juarez, the first step for possible readmission into the U.S.

"It's been tough," Garcia, 40, told the Free Press by phone from his home about one hour from Mexico City. "I'm still trying to adjust to living in a different country."

He tries to talk often with his wife and children by phone, but it's not the same as being with them. From helping them with their homework to driving them to school, he's missing out on their lives.

"It's been pretty stressful," he said of being separated from his 16-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son. "Even though you can talk on the phone, it's not the same as talking to them in person."

His wife, Cindy Garcia, is also struggling without her husband at home.

Born and raised in Detroit, Cindy, 46, married Jorge in 2002. She's on retired disability after going through two C-sections and years of heavy lifting at work in a truck plant in Dearborn.

More:Too old for DACA, man who spent 30 years of his life in U.S. is deported

More:Michigan father deported to Mexico: 'I feel lost'

"It's harder when you drop off the kids at school," Cindy said. "You're at home by yourself and your mind starts to wander. You get sad and depressed knowing your spouse is not there when you need the moral support."

Cindy and her two children, Soleil Garcia, 15, and Jorge Garcia Jr., 13, miss Jorge especially during special moments, like birthdays. Last year, Jorge missed his daughter's Quinceañera, the 15th birthday celebration popular among Mexican-Americans, which often includes a father-daughter dance.

"It's been rough mentally, knowing that he is in a country that he doesn't know," Cindy said. For the children, "it's been hard because they lack their father in their lives. They're used to doing their homework with him, and now their dad is not here with them. It's very hard."

More:Ripped apart by deportation of dad, the Garcia family struggles to cope

Cindy and her two children are currently on a holiday vacation, staying with Jorge in Mexico at his place in Nicolás Romero. They were able to celebrate Christmas, New Year's Day, and Jorge's birthday, and they were there to mark the one-year anniversary of him being deported.

"It's a day that is going to be stuck in my mind," Jorge said. When he was deported on Jan. 15, 2018, "I didn't think I would be separated from my family ... this long."

Jorge has been fighting to obtain legal status since 2005, hiring attorneys and spending fees in an attempt to get U.S. citizenship. In the past, he was allowed by immigration authorities to remain in the U.S., but that changed as Trump cracked down on immigration. In November 2017, he was told he had to leave by Jan. 15.

Escorted by federal agents, he hugged his crying wife and children on Martin Luther King Jr. Day before boarding the gates in a moment captured by the Free Press that went viral.

Jorge's attorney, Marya Lorenzana-Miles, said they are waiting to get an appointment with the U.S. Embassy. After that, they then have to apply for a waiver before Jorge can be readmitted. His wife has to show she is suffering from hardship in order for Jorge to get the waiver, she said.

Lorenzana-Miles said it's taking longer for deported immigrants to get appointments with embassies.

"The system does not work properly," she said. "The system does not care about the family. The system is creating bigger problem and more problems."

The State Department, which oversees foreign embassies, referred questions to the Department of Homeland Security, which did not return a request seeking comment on Jorge's case.

In a statement last year, the Detroit office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said Garcia was "an unlawfully present citizen of Mexico" who "was ordered removed by an immigration judge in June 2006." ICE said it had previously "exercised prosecutorial discretion on multiple prior occasions" before deciding to deport him.

Immigrant advocates say that across the U.S., deportations are ripping apart families, leaving kids without parents to support them, both financially and emotionally. Jorge worked as a landscaper and was active in his children's lives.

"It's not just my kids, it's a lot of kids being affected," Cindy said. "They all need their parents, to have them back in their lives to give them guidance. They're teenagers, they need that extra help and guidance."

Jorge wants to work in Mexico, but he said it has been difficult dealing with the local bureaucracies that require paperwork and other hurdles. One of his cousins occasionally helps him get small jobs in construction when they are available, but most of the time, he's unable to find work.

"It's hard to get jobs," he said.

Jorge said he hopes that the U.S. can pass immigration reform that would give a path to citizenship to people like him with no criminal records brought to the U.S. as children.

For now, he waits, filling his time with calls to his wife and thinking of his children. He remembers how easy it was to get around Detroit, while in Mexico, "I don't even feel comfortable going out to places here by myself."

Follow Detroit Free Press reporter Niraj Warikoo on Twitter: @nwarikoo