More than 30 years after she left her native Philippines for a life in the United States, a 66-year-old pastor’s wife from Mount Prospect boarded an airplane to Manila Thursday afternoon after being deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
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According to Del Rosario, the couple filed a family petition, called an I-130, in 2002, and it was approved. But because Bartolome had a removal order, she had to wait 10 years to receive a green card. The family had no money to hire a proper immigration attorney and thought that they had to refile the I-130 petition to apply for a green card.
They were called in for the I-130 interview by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which notified ICE. After the I-130 interview, Bartolome was arrested and taken into custody.
“Everything about her case is approvable except for the fact that she didn’t get the right advice from the right people at the right time,” Del Rosario said. “She tried her best for the last 20 years to gain legal status in the U.S.”
She added: “If [this administration] is not going to exercise discretion on a person like this, who would they exercise discretion for?”
