The Colorado father of five who declined immigration sanctuary in a church has been deported to Mexico after a long battle to obtain legal residency, an immigration advocate and family confirmed Thursday.
Jorge Zaldivar Mendieta was being held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention at the Aurora facility, owned by private prison company The Geo Group, since Nov. 13, awaiting deportation. The 44-year-old first arrived in the U.S. in 1997 and has no criminal convictions in Colorado, according to court records, but he came to the attention of federal authorities after he crashed his car in Jefferson County in 2008.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.
His wife Christina Zaldivar, a U.S. citizen, has fought his deportation for years, saying they were trying to do the right thing and help him obtain legal status. But he was continuously rejected because of what the couple said was a governmental error. However, after Zaldivar Mendieta spent two months in detention where friends and family allege he was denied medical care and food, Zaldivar wanted him out, even if it meant being in Mexico where she has no connections.
“Being forced into becoming a single mother of 5 while watching Jorge and our children suffer this forced seperation [sic] surpasses my opinion of being failed by my own government,” she wrote on a GoFundMe page.
Zaldivar flew to Mexico Jan. 8 after she was told her husband would be deported no later Jan. 7. He was not deported until Wednesday, said Gabriela Flora of the American Friends Service Committee.
“Send me my husband so I can nurse him back to health,” Zaldivar wrote on Facebook. “ICE & GEO have taken more than enough from us already.”
