A two-time cancer survivor and single mom of three may be deported as soon as today. Martha Lozano found out Wednesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had denied her a reprieve from deportation, despite last-minute intervention from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). Lozano has no criminal record and fears that she’ll be unable to secure “the extensive medical treatment” she needs to continue staying cancer-free in Mexico:
"She has a bus ticket to leave Modesto [Thursday] morning," says immigration attorney Camille Cook.
She says although her client Martha Lozano has lived in the US for 30 years, her options to remain have run out. She will self deport on Thursday.
Cook blames the 2003 deportation order on “poor legal advice” from Lozano’s previous attorney, who “essentially brought her to court with no actual defense” for her asylum claim. “In 2006, that attorney left the bar with misconduct charges pending.” To add to this grief, Lozano is a single mom today due to her husband’s deportation in 2009—he was arrested after the family was pulled over as they drove to Lozano’s breast cancer surgery.
The government had previously allowed Lozano to stay, throughout both her cancer diagnoses and when she was in remission. “Cook narrowed in on his point: The only thing that’s really changed in the last year or so is the administration—referring to increased crackdown on undocumented people under President Donald Trump.”
Cook says that Lozano’s “denied stay of deportation is part of a growing trend in the central San Joaquin Valley. Requests for permission to stay that have been approved for years are almost unilaterally being denied”:
Olga Grosh, an attorney with Fresno-based Pasifika Immigration Law Group, said ICE used to approve stays and offer other deals to undocumented immigrants who presented no risk to the community. Cases were terminated, allowing her clients to pursue legal residency and citizenship.
Over the last year, this prosecutorial discretion has completely disappeared, Grosh said. ICE is working to deport anyone with a deportation order unfortunate enough to end up in front of a judge – including unaccompanied minors and those actively working towards citizenship.
For Lozano and her family, they worry her deportation could end up being a death sentence. “Her fears are her kids and her health,” said her son Jonathan, “because she doesn't know out there if there is any medicine to be able to keep her going.” As if this family hadn’t dealt with enough trauma already in the form of her illnesses and their dad’s deportation, now they also have to deal with their family’s mom and breadwinner being torn from them:
After his father was deported, Jonathan assumed the role of family breadwinner, as his mother could not work while battling cancer. He works as a tow truck driver, and he’s hopeful that he and Ignacio will be able to provide for Eduardo with both of their parents gone.
Your Central Valley reported that “California Senator Diane Feinstein's office got wind of the case and conducted a congressional inquiry,” but Cook said that she “got a call from her office and they said ‘no.’ Her rep said to me ICE won't budge. It's this administration.” By now, Lozano may have already boarded a one-way bus away from her family, home and country of 30 years to a place she no longer recognized as her own. And why? Because cruelty, senselessness and racism are the Trump administration platform. There’s reasons for her possible deportation, but no reasoning.