They promised to send Cordero notice of a future deportation proceeding. Cordero, then just 16, was expected to attend the hearing and offer himself for removal.
Back in Connecticut, Cordero never received a notice. His uncle, himself an illegal alien, apparently gave the INS a nonexistent address, most likely to escape detention, Boyle said.
"He's very close with his son; he's the type of husband that just family is everything to him," said Gail Flores, his former boss at Branford's Jalapeno Heaven, the restaurant where Cordero met his wife. Anne Cordero said she's relieved her husband is home, but she still feels shaky and a little scared.
"He's not out of the woods yet," she said. And fears that had persisted all week were fresh in her mind.
"I can't live without him, and I can't live in Ecuador, and I can't allow my husband not to be with my son," she said.