The Deportation of Ray Jesus, by guest contributor Kacie Jesus
The Jesus family in Cedar City, Utah prior to Ray's deportation
Twenty-two years ago, at the age of fourteen, my husband Ray Jesus fled Guatemala on foot to save himself from being kidnapped or killed. His country was in the middle of a civil war, and the military had already killed tens of thousands of indigenous people just like Ray, including his eighteen-year-old brother-in-law. After living on the streets of Mexico for about a year, Ray made it all the way to the United States, where he applied for political asylum.
Ray was in the U.S. legally during the 1990s. In 1998, he made the mistake of changing his address without notifying the immigration courts. When he missed an important hearing on his case, he was ordered deported. Ray never received the deportation order at his new address.
Ray and I were married in 1999. I am an American-born citizen, and in 2004, with our third child on the way, we approached a lawyer to find out how I could sponsor Ray for citizenship. That’s when we found out about the deportation order. Our lawyer told us that Ray would need to return to Guatemala to apply for citizenship. On top of that, the whole process would cost about $7,000 and take up to two years. Even then, it wasn’t clear whether Ray would even be able to return since he had ignored the deportation order in 1999. He had also been charged with a DUI in 2000, hurting his chances even more.
As our family’ sole breadwinner, and with our third child on the way, Ray simply couldn’t leave for Guatemala. There was just no way we could make it work. So, he remained.
We got by like that for seven years. It all ended last August 11 when three officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement showed up at our home. They arrested Ray in front his three-year-old son, who still asks me why the bad guys in the white SUV took his daddy away.
Ray owned a contracting business. He had employees. He paid taxes. He spoke perfect English. Aside from the DUI twelve years ago, he always obeyed the law. He has a citizen wife and five American-born children—one of whom is disabled with autism.
Ray was very suddenly returned to the country he left twenty-two years ago with nothing but the clothes on his back. He lives there with his parents, in the house he grew up in. He’s working, but only earns about $7 per day—a typical wage in a country like Guatemala.
Our family lost everything the day Ray was deported. We no longer have an income because Ray always worked and I always stayed home to care for the kids. The cost of childcare for my autistic son would alone cost more than I could earn working outside of the home. We now survive on partial government assistance—food stamps, Medicaid, and subsidized housing—and the money I get from selling Ray’s tools.
Laws are made to protect, right? So I keep asking myself, what’s the point of laws that take away a loving husband, a dedicated father, a job-creator, a member of the community, and a taxpayer? Maybe some Americans are sleeping better knowing that there’s one less “illegal immigrant” in our country, but Ray’s children aren’t. They are struggling. I am struggling. Ray is struggling. We have no idea what our future holds.
Kacie Jesus lives with her five children in Cedar City, Utah. She blogs at http://raysdeportation.blogspot.com and can be reached at kaciejesus@hotmail.com
Most of the general public has this assumption that marriage of an undocumented person to a legal citizen automatically equates citizenship. Unless there is some connection to the undocumented population, most of the US has literally no idea things like this ever happen. There is this widespread ‘American ideal’ that our justice system is the epitome of fairness, at least by the middle-class, anyway. The undocumented have no voice as they’re being deported, and neither do their equally-statused family members that are left behind. It is going to be left up to the documented ones who love them to “get the word out” about what is happening to our families. I, too, have a story very similar to what is described above by Kacie Jesus. It infuriates me to think about law-makers who “play God” with people’s lives. In the next few years, the US will probably change its system of immigration. Unless the affected families can spread the word…we’re doomed to worse policy than there is now. If anyone knows how we can tell our stories so the widespread public can hear them, please speak up and let us know how. This is a human-rights issue. Children have the right to not be separated from their parents. Even convicted murderers in the US aren’t stripped of their rights to see family. Most Americans are good people, and I believe many would be upset to know that families are being broken apart like this. If anyone knows how attention can be brought to this, please let it be known. I would be willing to do whatever it takes to help in this situation, as my family has suffered too, just like this precious family.
My heart breaks for your family! It’s a scary reality that our partner/spouse can be gone in an instant. The threat alone is a heavy burden to carry. As a U.S. citizen married to an undocumented person, it is a constant worry and game of wondering “what if?”! Why is it the government can tell me who I can be married to and take that person away from me because they were born somewhere else? How is it that the government can take my son (who is also a U.S. citizen)’s father from him because he doesn’t have a social security number? No one realizes the struggles of the spouses/children/families of an undocumented person. No one seems to care or want to put our faces out there that immigration effects these citizens (us) directly! I wish more people in our position would come forward.
Maybe then we can get people listening who wouldn’t otherwise hear.
Kacie & family, you are in my thoughts!
God did not put borders when he made the earth. Why does the U.S. have to destroy families. There is no point to prove here. Find a bigger fish!