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Cindy and Jorge Garcia

(Courtesy photo)

LINCOLN PARK, MI - Jorge Garcia knows when he gets a call from his 7-year-old son it means more than a friendly hello.

“He worries that I have been deported. Whenever I am gone for awhile, he starts to wonder,” Garcia, 33 said.

Garcia is in danger of being forced to leave the country because his parents came to Michigan from Mexico illegally. Garcia was 10 years old at the time and did not realize he and his parents were here illegally until he was an adult.

He has a landscaping job, has worked at other jobs over the years, possesses a Social Security card and has paid taxes. He is married and has three children.

In 2004 he applied for citizenship and four years later was informed his request was denied. The process took so long that Garcia became too old to apply for citizenship under the Dream Act, which grants the children of undocumented residents citizenship if they are 15-30 years old, served in the American military and are working and/or in school.

Garcia hopes a May 9 meeting with immigration officials in Detroit will at least get him more time to continue his fight for legal residency. Otherwise, he may be forced to leave the country and face being barred from re-entry for as long as 10 years while seeking citizenship.

“It is not fair,” Garcia said. “It seems like since the beginning, the government has done everything the wrong way. If they were going to deny me (citizenship), they should have done it right away. Making me wait four years was not right.”

The family’s fight comes as Republican and Democratic lawmakers prepare to announce sweeping changes to immigration law, perhaps as early as this week.

Garcia’s wife, Cindy, has received help from the offices of Michigan Democratic Congressmen John Conyers, Hansen Clarke and Gary Peters.

She has urged reporters to write stories, community activists to petition immigration officials, march on Washington and appeared on television shows to plead her husband’s case.

“We don’t know what will happen,” Cindy Garcia said. “We know we have to keep fighting.”

Garcia said her children have received therapy to help deal with their father’s situation. But she said her family will do what it has to keep Jorge in the country. The family has spent nearly $60,000 on legal fees, filing fees and other costs.

“They know I am willing to fight,” Cindy Garcia said of immigration officials. “They also know they can get money out of our situation. We have spent close to $60,000. That is what is nerve-wracking.”

Jorge Garcia said he appreciates the support he has received, especially the efforts by his wife.

“It feels great,” Garcia said of his wife’s efforts. “Not everybody gets to have a wife like that fighting for you and to keep our family together.”

Santiago Esparza is a Detroit-based freelance writer.