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Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Ohio plan to move ahead with the deportation of Pedro Hernandez-Ramirez on Thursday, despite repeated pleas for leniency from his family, community members, and the local Catholic diocese.
Hernandez-Ramirez, an undocumented Mexican immigrant, has spent the past 14 years caring for Juan, his 28-year-old stepson, who has both severe mental disabilities as well as limited mobility due to cerebral palsy. His impending deportation will leave his American-born wife Seleste Wisniewski as Juan's sole caretaker-a role she says she is physically unable to perform.
"I can't lift [Juan] up," Wisniewski
told Fox 8 Cleveland. "I can't do it. My husband does all of that. I never thought I would have to think about that."
Advocates for Hernandez-Ramirez had staged a last-minute campaign to persuade ICE to grant a stay of deportation before Thursday's deadline. Officials from the agency denied the request, explaining that Hernandez-Ramirez had been deported several times before.
In 2015, Hernandez-Ramirez was granted a work visa-in part thanks to his role as caregiver to Juan-permitting him to stay in the country through this coming February, at which point, he was told, he could reapply for an extension.
Comment: The US considers the death and maiming of civilians and destruction of property to be 'collateral damage'. Lives amount to a statistical number next to a line item.