Escape from Mexico after the murder of her husband, but here she has not been able to find pro bono legal assistance
Regina González Anica, a mother who fled her village in Guerrero (Mexico), after receiving death threats after the murder of her husband, is between a rock and a hard place, since immigration authorities have given her 90 days to Let him leave the country.
Due to lack of resources, she has not had access to legal assistance to help her with her request for political asylum.
“I spend my time crying, although I try not to see my daughters,” Regina says, 28 years old and mother of two 8 and 3 year old girls.
This young woman is from a town south of Guerrero. Was married. She and her husband were selling fish.
“He was Jesús Salvador Alavez García. It took me several years. He was 45 when he was killed. He died in March of this year, ”he says.
Jesus Salvador was raised by those who sell drugs. He was missing for two days.
“I kept looking for him until when I went to the Municipal Palace of my town, I looked at the newspaper; and there came the news that he had been found tortured and killed with two bullets, one in the throat and one in the head, ”he says.
On the ninth day they finished praying the rosaries for the memory of her late husband, Regina says that a woman went to visit her to tell her that she had to leave town if they were not going to kill her.
“They sent me to warn her. I went with my girls to Acapulco where my father lives. There they advised me to come to the United States better, ”he says.
Together with her youngest daughters, she boarded a bus that took them to Tijuana, approximately 15 days after the murder of her husband.
“I arrived with a sister. For four months I worked in a box factory. But the first days of July, I decided to surrender to migration at the border and ask for political asylum, ”he says.
After five days of keeping her detained next to her daughters in the cells known as coolers Due to its freezing temperatures, it was released with an electronic monitoring shackle on the ankle.
“I went to San Bernardino with a sister-in-law who lives there. But upon arrival I got very bad from a severe anemia that I have always suffered but that was aggravated by not eating well. They had to hospitalize me, and put four liters of blood. I thought I was going to die", remember.
His delicate state of health forced migration to remove the shackle of his ankle.
After two months of hospitalization in Riverside County, he decided to leave the hospital at his own risk.
“I wasn't ready or healthy to leave the hospital, but I was desperate. As it was difficult for me to breathe in Riverside, they told me to come to Raleigh – the capital city of the state of North Carolina, which was better for my health because the air was less polluted, ”he explains.
In Raleigh, Regina has a sister who received her and gave her a roof with her two daughters. But the happy reunion of the two sisters did not last long.
"She ran to me because she told me that I didn't help her at all or pay the rent," he says.
For a few days, he lives with his daughters in a traila that a brother of the Christian Church he attends lends him.
"We feed on the food given to us by some relatives and the brother's family," he says.
He learned that he had an order to leave the country issued on October 25, 20 days ago when he called the migration telephone number. "The deadline for me to leave is 90 days," he says.
Since he was in Riverside, and still in Raleigh, he has spoken with many immigration attorneys. “Everyone asks us a lot of money to help me with my case. But I don't have it, ”he says sadly.
“Actually I left Mexico because I was very afraid for my life. I didn't think about all the obstacles that I was going to find in the United States, ”he says.
Francisco Moreno, director of communities and spokesman for the Council of Mexican Federations (COFEM) says that after Regina contacted them for help, she approached the people of the Mexican consulate in Raleigh, but was told by Being an asylum seeker cannot help you.
“¿So where is the money that the López Obrador government gave for consulates to become public defenders for immigrants? ”He asks.
Moreno reveals that COFEM supported Regina with a lawyer who reviewed her case, and accompanied her twice to court without charge. “But to continue helping her, I needed to charge her. That made Regina run out of any legal help, and now she faces the risk of being deported, ”he says.
On behalf of COFEM, Moreno sent a letter to Roberto Valdovinos, director of the Institute of Mexicans Abroad, in which he asks with whom they can deal with this type of matter to give relief to the situation of this family.
"How, when, where and who can support this family and the many that we know are riding around miserably”, I ask the official, but so far he has not had an answer.
The assigned consul Alicia Patricia Pérez, and Adriana Bonfil of Protection of the Consulate of Mexico in Raleigh told her that they cannot help her.
“Meanwhile, Regina has no money, work, food or where to stay permanently. No one at the Consulate can tell you how they can help you stay legally in the country, or return to Mexico even under death threats, ”he says.
Disconsolate, Regina says that they and their girls have suffered so much that they sometimes think of returning to Mexico.
"The truth is that I am afraid of going to Mexico, but if you cannot help me, I will not have another one, and put myself in the hands of God. Of course my people would never return. It would be death"He exclaims.
An account to raise funds for Regina and her daughters was opened. Click here: Let's help Regina.
