Why didn't deported Arizona mom apply for U.S. citizenship?
The short answer: She had no real path to becoming a U.S. citizen.
Guadalupe Garcia De Rayos, the Mesa mom deported last week, came to the U.S. when she was 14, lived here for two decades, and had two children here.
Her deportation has drawn national attention as a signal President Donald Trump is implementing the stricter immigration-enforcement policies he promised during the campaign.
As the impact of those policies on Garcia De Rayos and her family has been reported, many have asked: Why didn’t she apply for citizenship?
The short answer: She had no real path.
Interviews with her attorney, Ray Ybarra-Maldonado, and other immigration lawyers and experts explain why.
To apply for citizenship, an immigrant must first become a legal permanent resident. The most common way is through an immediate or close family member who petitions for you. Immediate relatives include a spouse, parent, or children over 21. Close relatives include siblings over 21.
Sponsoring relatives must be U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents.
Immigrant parents, spouses and children under 21 of U.S. citizens have top priority.
Other immigrants with qualified relatives have to wait in line. And that wait can take years, or even decades because of limits on the number of green cards issued per category and country.
In Guadalupe’s case, her spouse is also undocumented, and she has no other immediate relatives to sponsor her. So she didn’t qualify to apply for a green card that way.
Her children are U.S. citizens, but won't qualify to sponsor their mother until they turn 21.
Even then, she will likely have to wait 10 more years: Most undocumented immigrants who are sponsored by a qualified relative must first return to their own country to start the process at a U.S. consulate. And those who have lived illegally in the U.S. for more than a year, such as Garcia De Rayos, are barred from returning for 10 years.
A sister who is a U.S. citizen filed a petition for Garcia De Rayos. That application, made more than 10 years ago, was still pending when Garcia De Rayos was deported.
That is because siblings are a lower priority under U.S. immigration law. The current wait for sibling-sponsored green cards for people from Mexico: 30 years, or longer.