Posted on 09/29/2007 1:23:39 AM PDT by endthematrix
There were no words, in English or Spanish, that an ailing Maria Carrillo could utter Tuesday when told her family had been given a temporary reprieve from deportation to Mexico.
Her 15-year-old daughter translated "catorce meses" -- 14 months -- when the family must return to an immigration courtroom in downtown Chicago. The girl then asked her mother, on behalf of a reporter, for a reaction.
» Click to enlarge image Maria Carrillo leaves an immigration hearing where she was granted a temporary reprieve. (Brian Jackson/Sun-Times)
Carrillo, 46, a short woman with graying hair, turned from her daughter, her husband, Cirilo, and her attorney, put her chin to her chest, a tissue to her eyes, and wept softly.
Her battle with immigration is really a fight for her life, said her daughter, Maria Elizabeth.
If the Carrillos stay in Jeffersonville, Ind., across the Ohio River from Louisville, Ky., the matriarch can continue receiving chemotherapy and other medical attention at a university hospital where the family has worked out a payment plan.
If she returns to Mexico, she likely won't be able to afford health care and could die within six months, her family believes.
"We just want more time for my mom, that's all," Maria Elizabeth said before Tuesday's hearing in an immigration courtroom on the 19th floor of 55 E. Monroe. Her mother has been given two years to live.
The family came to the United States illegally in 2001, knowing it was a risk.
In 2003, immigration authorities came knocking after the couple's two oldest sons were snagged in a fraudulent document scheme investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The sons were deported and now the rest of the family, including mother and daughter, two other children and the father, Cirilo, are in the final stages of fighting to remain in this country.
In a last-ditch effort, the Carrillos' attorney, Julianne M. O'Grady, filed asylum papers in immigration court Tuesday. She acknowledged to Judge Jennie L. Giambastiani that proving the family would suffer some type of persecution would be tough, but the family was ready to fight. The next hearing was set for November 2008.
"We bought ourselves 14 months," O'Grady said outside the courtroom. She reiterated what she said last spring, wishing the government would simply close the case for humanitarian reasons.
"If this isn't a good humanitarian case, what is?" she said.
Rick Bieseda, Illinois state director of the Minuteman Project, said he is sympathetic to the woman's plight.
"But we have to remember these people came here illegally," he said. "I feel bad for the lady, but we have to remember she came here illegally. Illegal aliens aren't entitled to benefits that are meant for American citizens."
Huh? This is the USA, where EVIL private healthcare screws the working poor."
If she returns to Mexico, she likely won't be able to afford health care and could die within six months, her family believes.
These is some lying going on here.
If they have enough money to work out a payment plan with a US hospital, then they have enough money to pay for health care in Mexico where costs are often 10-20% of US prices for the same service.
Directly or indirectly, they are receiving a subsidy from the taxpayers.
bump
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