First they gave him asylum, which opened the way for him to be a resident, and set him on the path to citizenship
In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, Jorge Gibrán Acosta López, a Mexican immigrant who was born with various disabilities, received his green card from the United States, almost three decades after emigrating to this country.
“He is not conscious, but he is happy. You know that the green card it's a good thing, ”says Roberto Acosta, Jorge Gibrán's father.
Protected with coronavirus masks, the boy and his parents Roberto and Natividad Acosta showed up at the offices of immigration attorney Alex Gálvez to pick up his green card.
"Although my son does not want President Trump at all, we must recognize that this administration gave him residence, and we are already counting the days for him to become a citizen in five years," says the father.
“Citizenship is the greatest thing that every immigrant wants to have in the United States. We want him to be a citizen so that he receives all the rights ”, he completes.
Jorge Gibrán is 30 years old. He is the third of four children of his parents Roberto and Natividad, born in Sinaloa, Mexico. He was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, but at three months old, he was brought to Los Angeles.
The boy began to grow without walking or talking. The temperatures and seizures followed. Almost to turn three years old, they did a genetic test that showed that the minor had the Smith-Magenis syndrome, a developmental disorder that affects many parts of the body.
"An error in a chromosome caused him to have an intellectual deficit, learning problems and various disabilities that began to be accentuated in kindergarten," explains Roberto.
After a tour of various public and private schools in search of the best care for his son, Jorge Gibrán managed to graduate from Villa Esperanza High School in Pasadena in 2008.
But time passed, and the boy who came to the country as a baby, continued without immigration status.
"It was very difficult. Due to not having valid social security, they denied him medical services and gave him a restricted MediCal. In 2014, he was admitted to intensive care for respiratory problems that turned into pneumonia. The social worker at San Gabriel Medical Center insisted on telling me who was going to pay and how we were going to do it. It is a very big helplessness when you don't have papers. I had to learn about the rights of patients, "says Roberto.
In 2016, Roberto and Natividad became U.S. citizens. A year later they went to see immigration lawyer Gálvez to see if there was any possibility of immigration relief that would allow their son to emerge from the shadows.
"The lawyer advised us to apply for asylum," recalls the father.
In 2017, Gálvez filed the petition at the Los Angeles asylum office. under the argument that if the boy was deported, his human rights as a special person would be violated, since in Mexico he would be relegated to living on the margins of society without any service.
“During the asylum interview, within his limitations, my son said to the officer: hey! don't send me to Mexico, don't sports me, don't put me in jail, ”says Roberto.
The day they gave him the good news that he had won asylum, it was a very big thing for the family. "There I realized that some immigration officers are very human," says the father.
In 2018 Jorge Gibrán received asylum. A year and a half later, he applied for residency. On April 7, lawyer Gálvez gave him the green card that was mailed to his office.
“The residence is a huge satisfaction for a person with problems and needs as great as my son's. He feels American. He doesn't know that he isn't, but he speaks pure English, ”says the father.
He acknowledges that he and his wife Natividad always maintained a successful attitude and thought that they would be able to obtain asylum and residence for their son.
“We are going to celebrate with a trip to Florida, touring the entire country in a truck with a motor home. We will only wait for the coronavirus epidemic to pass, ”he says, happy and satisfied.
Debunks a myth
Lawyer Gálvez says that when Jorge Gibrán obtained asylum, the myth that because you are Mexican you are not eligible is debunked. "It is a big lie. Each case is unique, and deserves to be evaluated on its own merits and not with the lens of a myth that harms those who want to achieve the American dream, "he says.
And he adds that this case is very moving because it comes in the midst of a global pandemic quarantine, and at Easter when we must remember that God sent Jesus as a unique and special person. "In the same way, the history of each immigrant deserves the dignity of being special."
