Miguel Lopez was deported to Tijuana on June 7 after living in Livermore for 29 years, separating him from his wife and adult children. He had sought permanent residency since 2007 and had no serious criminal history. ICE detained him for 10 days during a routine checkup in May while he attended a court status hearing, and he was removed hours before a federal judge granted an order that could have allowed him to stay. He relocated to his childhood home in Chimalhuacan to live with his father, searches for work, performs household chores, and maintains daily video calls with his family.
He has been working toward permanent residency in the U.S. since 2007, when immigration officials first tried to remove him from the country. Although he has no serious criminal past, Lopez was detained during a routine immigration checkup with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in May while showing up to a court status hearing. ICE held him for 10 days, until he was finally deported on June 7 to Tijuana, hours before a federal judge granted an order allowing him to stay in the U.S.
He has since relocated to his childhood home just outside of Mexico City to live with his father. At that modest home in Chimalhuacan, in the State of Mexico and part of Mexico City's expanded metropolitan area, he spends most of his time looking for a job, cleaning and recleaning his room, washing his clothes and calling his wife, Rosa Lopez, daily. His video calls to his family usually end in tears, he says.
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