An 18-year-old Texas man purchases life-saving medicine for his 11-year-old sister every two weeks and ships it to Mexico.
Since immigration officials deported his five siblings—four of whom are U.S. citizens, including his sister, who was ten years old at the time and is currently undergoing treatment for a rare brain tumor—he has been acting in this manner for the past six months. When authorities deported their parents, who lacked legal status, they were all transferred to Mexico.
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Being the oldest brother and the only one remaining in the United States, the absence of the family has since caused him a great deal of stress.
He claimed that his once-bustling house, where family and friends celebrated life milestones and threw cookouts, now felt desolate. A profound sense of loneliness overtakes him each time he enters the house.
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Nobody is present. He said, “It’s just me,” and then paused for a while. It has been difficult.
Concerned for his family’s safety after they were sent to a region of Mexico where American nationals are frequently abducted, the brother, who spoke exclusively to NBC News, is not being identified.
After high school, he had intended to attend college in order to pursue his ideal career. He claimed that instead, he works two jobs: one at a fast-food restaurant during the day and another at a petrol station at night. The teenager claimed that because he works so many hours a week, he occasionally hardly has time to eat.
He has been forced to become his family’s lifeline due to their expulsion. He claimed that the constant reminders of his baby sister’s convulsions and numerous hospital revivals inspire him to persevere when the loneliness and lengthy workdays become too much to bear.
According to her physicians, that brain tumor could return at any time. The 18-year-old, who is also a citizen of the United States, stated that this is the reason she must continue to receive the medication that I purchase.
Since the specialists who are keeping an eye on his sister’s recuperation and writing her prescriptions are all in the United States, she is unable to get the medication she requires from Mexico.
It’s not inexpensive. “It was about $300 at one point,” he claimed. I’m paying for everything because the insurance doesn’t cover anything.
After a deportation, hoping for parole
On February 3, the family was traveling from their home in the Rio Grande Valley region to Houston, the home of the girl’s doctors, for an urgent medical examination. They made a stop at a US immigration station en route, which they have visited several times. However, immigration officials detained the parents this time.
Danny Woodward, their lawyer, claims that they have never taken any action to prioritize their removal. The next day, the whole family was transferred to a detention center and sent to Mexico.
Her mother told NBC News in June that the girl’s health has not gotten better since she was in Mexico. The girl’s parents alternate watching over and caring for her through the night because her headaches and vertigo have gotten worse.
Some of the long-lasting after effects from the brain surgery that saved her life last year are reflected in the symptoms. The youngster has memory issues, speech issues, and mobility issues on the right side of her body because the swelling in her brain hasn’t completely gone down. These include receiving MRI scans every three months, attending rehabilitation therapy sessions, taking medicine to avoid seizures, and regularly checking in with specialists to evaluate her healing.
However, since the family was deported, she has not been able to regularly receive this care, according to her mother.
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In June, the family submitted an application to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for humanitarian parole. They have yet to receive a response.
According to the girl’s brother, waiting for them to respond is extremely stressful. Why it’s taking so long is beyond me.
A request for clarification from USCIS was not answered; however, the agency’s website states that applicants can show urgency by providing a cause for their presence in the United States that necessitates prompt action, such as urgent medical care or the need to visit, support, or help a sick relative.
A representative for USCIS’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, previously told NBC News that the family’s circumstances are not true and refused to discuss the case’s details, citing privacy concerns. In a statement, the spokesperson warned that individuals who choose to disobey accelerated removal orders will be held accountable.
A church community calls for ‘compassion’ and lends a hand
Allowing the family to return so that their 11-year-old can receive the treatment she needs with the support of her entire family seems like a no-brainer to Marco Polo Coronado Jr., the lead pastor at the church the boy’s family started attending last year after his sister’s diagnosis.
I don’t believe that one’s political background matters. According to Coronado, compassion is something that God instills in us from the bottom of our hearts. It is difficult to avoid once you have found Jesus and established a connection with him.
“I think they go out of their way to try to make ends meet, do all the right things for them, and bring them up the right way,” Coronado said, describing the amazing children who excel in the arts and music. “It’s a wonderful family.”
In order to keep that optimism alive, church volunteers helped the youngster tidy up the house last month so that it would be in fine condition when the family returned.
The teenager claimed that after a few days of labor, everything turned out better than she had anticipated.
The 18-year-old found himself with bills to pay and a house to maintain when his family left. He stated he thought about quitting school to work full-time as he battled to complete his final semester of senior year. He continued to attend school, however, after reflecting about his mother and the sacrifices she had made.
His family was absent when he turned eighteen and graduated from high school. In order to become a neurosurgeon—the same kind of physician who saved his sister’s life during her first brain surgery last year—he had assumed that was when he would start applying to colleges.
He thought back to when he made that professional choice. He had never met the neurosurgeon who operated on his sister before. The boy said that the doctor’s eyes lit up with joy when he emerged from surgery. That’s what I want to do, I thought. He has placed that on indefinite hold.
