A family of Mexican immigrants whose cause had been embraced by an Iowa farming town packed up Tuesday and expected to start their journey in the middle of the night, taking the first step toward deportation, family members said.
Juan and Patricia Castillo, who were active in school, sports and community affairs during their nine years in Clarion, gave away their furniture and stuffed their van with clothes and valuables in order to surrender themselves to authorities Wednesday morning in Omaha.
“We have a short time–I think three or four hours–to pack up everything and take it out from the house,” Patricia Castillo said from Clarion in a phone interview. “And we have to throw away everything.”
The Castillos, who immigration officials say crossed the border illegally, were ordered to surrender themselves by Aug. 17. The family’s attorney and immigration officials later agreed on the meeting in Omaha, said Berta Alberts, a family friend and activist on behalf of Latino immigrants.
Duane Asbe, a Clarion resident who also has joined the Castillos’ cause, said they will have 60 hours to leave the country if ordered to do so in Omaha, as is expected. But friends are hoping the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals will grant the Castillos’ request to stay the deportation order.
The Castillos do not want to live on the lam and will leave the country if they cannot stay legally, Alberts said. “They don’t want to be running around like fugitives,” she said. “They want to do it the right way.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot discuss the Castillos’ case in detail because it is a private matter, said Tim Counts, spokesman for the bureau’s office in Minnesota, which has jurisdiction. However, the family has had a hearing and an appeal, and he said the case’s status has not changed since Aug. 17.
“We consider them fugitives,” Counts said.
Juan Castillo worked at a company that makes agricultural sprayers, while Patricia worked for an electronics company. Despite their illegal residency status, they had permission to work here. Their troubles arose when they engaged the services of attorney Rufino Villarreal of Omaha, who has since been disbarred. The Nebraska Supreme Court said he was running a scheme to lure clients by promising he could win them economic refugee status, something the court said “has no reasonable basis in law.”
Residents of Clarion, a farming town of 2,968, wrote letters to representatives and hosted a town picnic Aug. 23 to raise money to help the Castillos fight their battle against deportation.
The family won praise in town because of their involvement in everything from sports to an annual fair sponsored by the town’s Heartland Museum. Santiago Castillo, 15, played football and had hoped to win a spot as backup quarterback this season at his high school. His sisters–Veronica, 11, and Alejandra, 10–are active in community sports and other activities. The children were born in Mexico and are not U.S. citizens.
Patricia Castillo said the family was giving away all its furniture, dishes and other household goods because there was no way to fit it in the van. They expected to leave their home around 2 a.m. Wednesday.
“We have to take just the clothes and the papers for my kids, and that’s it,” she said. “My kids took back their books this morning to the school, and it’s hard, just very hard.”
The family planned to head on to the U.S.-Mexican border crossing near McAllen, Texas, on the Rio Grande. From there, they will cross into the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, where they originally came from.
Patricia Castillo said she doesn’t know where they will settle once they arrive.
“When we’ll be there, we’ll have to find where we’re going,” she said.
