Lincoln Park father deported after spending 30 years in US

Cindy Garcia's husband may be back in Mexico but she is not done fighting - she's just getting started

A family's heartbreak was on display as a father hugged his wife and children and said goodbye. Jorge Garcia gone, deported.   He was sent back to Mexico - a country he hasn't called home since he was 10-years-old, nearly 30 years ago.

"I am very hurt that as an American citizen I have to suffer and my kids have to suffer for something that was done when he was a child." said Cindy Garcia, his husband. 
"And it was no fault of his own, his parents just wanted a better life for him."

Jorge was brought to the U.S. by relatives as a child. Now this upstanding hardworking landscaper, father of three and husband from Lincoln Park is too old for DACA, but he's been working on legalizing his immigration status for years - with yearly visits to immigration. Each time he was granted a stay of deportation - except for this last time.

"When we went this year on Nov. 20th that's when the officer said - under the new administration Trump wants everybody to leave and your time has run out," Cindy said.

She says they were going to detain Jorge then and there but immigration gave them more time, ordered him deported the day after Thanksgiving, then delayed the deportation until Jan. 15 so he could spend the holidays with his family.

But those holidays weren't happy ones.

"No Christmas tree, no Christmas lights," Cindy said. "Nothing, because we knew that it was going to be sad. We knew we had to face the fact he was going to be leaving."

And on Jan. 15, a national holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his dream, Jorge’s American dream fell apart as he boarded a plane for Mexico - not knowing if he'll ever be able to come back home.

Cindy is still here, trying to figure out how to tell their granddaughter he's gone.

"I know when I go to pick her up over the weekend she's going to look around like where's my grandpa," Cindy said. "How do you explain it to a 2-year-old.  The government took him. She's not going to understand."

Cindy says she will continue to speak out. They are applying for a pardon and praying Jorge can come home. Cindy is also speaking out for the others brought here as children in danger of being deported.

"There's other people out there - in the same situation," she said.

The family has set up a GoFundMe to help pay expenses CLICK HERE to donate.