When Nestor Marchi, an undocumented immigrant originally from Brazil, was caught in a workplace raid at his airline mechanic job in 2004, the government worked out a deal with him so he could stay (Mr. “Art of the Deal” loves those, right?). In exchange for monthly ICE check-ins and providing federal officials with “information on fraud and abuse in the airline industry,” Nestor would be given a work permit so he could work legally and continue providing for his family. Nestor followed the government’s instructions diligently, checking in with ICE monthly throughout the Bush and Obama administrations. Beginning in 2012, Nestor’s check-ins were even switched to a yearly schedule instead. Then came Nestor’s check-in under a President Trump:
In April 2017 Nestor was told he needs to leave by June 15.
“Life ended to me because being here for that long it’s just I’m trying to be American now,” he said.
Nestor plans to follow orders and has already bought a plane ticket to go back to Brazil on June 14.
But he is hoping immigration will give him more time, because he has congestive heart failure and a host of other medical challenges.
Nestor and his son worry the slow-moving health care system in Brazil will leave him without a doctor’s appointment for up to a year and Nestor can’t survive that.
“Knowing my dad, that he has to go back and without anything lined up, knowing the way Brazilian medicine is, knowing the way the hospital and doctors are, that’s a death sentence,” Andy said.
Nestor’s attorney, Jeremey McKinney, is working up the chain of command in Immigration and Customs Enforcement to see if they will delay Nestor’s deportation so that he can get his health situation in order.
“This administration is not going after ‘bad hombres,’” Kinney, who has been rallying Greensboro, North Carolina advocates in support of Nestor, told the Triad City Beat. “They’re conducting this quiet and very easy enforcement action taking in non-criminals who voluntarily appear at the immigration office. The question is one of public policy. We have finite officers and finite planes. This is a matter of priority for the Trump administration. The promise that I heard is that he was going after criminals. Under no one’s definition of criminal would Nestor be included.”
And Nestor, to use Trump’s own crass term, is no “bad hombre.” According to the Triad City Beat, his record consists of an expired tag in 2004, and a speeding ticket in 2005.
Nestor’s story is the latest example of immigrants being ordered to leave, or taken into custody, after following the government’s instructions to check in with ICE. In the days after Donald Trump’s inauguration, Arizona mom Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos was arrested and deported after her check-in. Last month, Maribel Trujillo, a mom of four U.S. citizens, was arrested and deported to Mexico after her check-in. Jeanette Vizguerra, another mom of U.S. citizens, took sanctuary in a Denver church the night before her scheduled ICE check-in. She was there when she found out that the ongoing stay on her deportation had not been extended.
Nestor told the Triad City Beat what it’s like to live, work, and raise a family—Nestor’s son Andy is a DACA recipient and firefighter in the community—as an undocumented person:
“You live your whole life afraid immigration’s going to knock on your door,” he said. “Your whole life is looking over your shoulder, living a scared life. It’s very hard because I know I did something wrong — I overstayed my visa. Everything I do is to give something to my family. I want to stay here.”
All the same, he looks at his decision to come to the United States with satisfaction, considering that his son, Andy, is serving the community as a Greensboro firefighter.
Through his earnings, Nestor was able to pay his son’s $1,500 annual tuition at GTCC. Although Andy has lived in Greensboro since he was 7 years old, his family paid the international rate so he could attend community college. Now 30, Andy obtained Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status, allowing him to join the Greensboro Fire Department, where he serves on the hazardous-materials team.
“That’s why I came to the States,” Nestor Marchi said. “It paid off. I have a son doing something I’m very proud of. I came here not to send money to anywhere, but to give my family a better life.”
Andy got married to a U.S. citizen just a few months ago, and in three years could sponsor his father and put an end to this nightmare. But Nestor doesn’t have three years to spare. He barely has three weeks. Nestor now fears that his deportation back to his native Brazil could cost him his life:
In 2006, he developed congestive heart failure, leading to diabetes, and now relies on a cocktail of medications to maintain his health. If he’s forced to return to Brazil, Marchi said, he would have to wait for eight months just to get an appointment to see a doctor.
“He’s fighting to be alive,” Rose Snead, Marchi’s friend, said. “Every three or four months, he goes to Florida to be treated. If he goes to Brazil, it’s a death sentence.”
“If you have any humanity, [recognize that] it’s case by case,” Nestor said. “I always obey the law and do everything right. I plead with you: Please look at the other side. Some of us can be useful for the nation. Give some of us a chance to stay here.”