A Painesville mother of four was deported on Tuesday without incident after being held in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Tiffin, Ohio.
Beatriz Morelos was sent back without incident, according to ICE. Her attorney, Elizabeth Ford, were begging ICE officials to rethink their decision. Morelos' attorney says not only does Morelos not have a criminal history, but she’d be sent to what’s considered one of the most dangerous places in Mexico.
Nuevo Laredo is just south of the Texas border in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas where drug cartels, gangs and convicted criminals run the show. It is so dangerous, in fact, that two men, Mexican immigrants deported from Painesville several weeks ago, were kidnapped and held for ransom there.
“For years, this has been her worst fear and it’s coming true,” said Morelos’ Husband, Jose DeJesus.
For 17 years, Morelos, her husband and their four kids have made a home in Painesville, Ohio. That is until now. Eight days ago, Morelos was arrested for driving without a license. From there, immigration officials discovered she had been living in the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant and scheduled her deportation for one week later.
“She said that she’s very afraid, that she doesn’t want to go back to a country where she’s coming from because her life is at risk over there,” said DeJesus.
“I can’t imagine putting a mother, who’s in her mid 30s with four U.S. citizen children there alone," Ford said. "She has no family in Mexico, her entire family is in the United States, it’s absolutely horrific to think that this is where this young woman is going."
Ford has asked ICE to grant Morelos a stay. However, this is unlikely considering the mass deportations taking place since the Trump administration prioritized kicking out illegal immigrants.
Ford said the way U.S. immigration laws are currently written, it would have made it impossible for Morelos to have become a citizen while she was here.
“It is absolutely impossible for people in her situation, and in many other people’s situations, to correct their status with how the laws are written now. If she was able to correct her status she absolutely would have just like many of the other people would,” said Ford.
“He tells them that they’re going to be reunited that he gives them faith that they’re going to be reunited again,” said a translator, speaking on behalf of DeJesus.
Morelos’ four kids, the youngest of which is four-years-old, are all U.S. citizens and her husband is here with a visa.
