The young Cuban mother Elienay Estrada, with I-220B and a two-month-old baby, faces her urgent appointment with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tomorrow and hopes that she will not be separated from her daughter.
"Today I am at home enjoying my baby and trusting in God; tomorrow everything will be fine. I have already done everything I could, now all that's left is to wait and trust! In case the worst happens, my husband and I will have to make a decision to see what is best for our family," she said in a statement to CiberCuba.
The defense hired by Estrada filed a stay of deportation five days ago (on Wednesday, June 18), requesting that he be allowed to remain in the United States while his family reunification application is being processed. This process has been underway since the beginning of the year.
Although she is not handling the case, when asked by CiberCuba about Elienay Estrada's situation, lawyer Liudmila Marcelo suggested that considering the husband is a permanent resident and the baby is an American citizen just two months old, the halt to deportation should argue that the child, as is natural in any country, needs her mother. Additionally, the baby has her pediatric consultations in the U.S., and relocating to Cuba would force her to live in a country with a bankrupt public healthcare system.
Elienay Estrada has also reached out to the office of her district's Republican congressman, Carlos Giménez, who showed interest in the case and committed to doing what he can despite the limited options available. The young woman has been summoned urgently, with less than a week's notice, to report to ICE shortly after her annual interview, which had scheduled her appointment for next year.
This Cuban mother has found an outlet on TikTok, where she has received a lot of support, but where she has also encountered very harsh testimonies, such as that of a couple of Cubans on an I-220B who have decided to return to Cuba to avoid being separated from their one-and-a-half-year-old baby. This mother advised Elienay Estrada to obtain her child's passport before attending the ICE interview to prevent complications with these processes in the future, in case the worst happens.
In fact, attorney Liudmila Marcelo recommends arriving at the ICE interview—where there is a high likelihood that the deportation order currently in effect will be carried out—with all documentation in order, from who will be the guardian of the baby to bank accounts, in order to avoid ending up like the Cuban Heidy Sánchez Tejeda, who was deported in April despite being the mother of a one-and-a-half-year-old child who is still nursing.
The company where Heidy Sánchez Tejeda worked issued her pending salary in a check to her husband, Yauniel Valle, who requested that it be deposited into his wife's account, unaware that the bank had canceled all the cards at the time she was deported, resulting in the loss of all that money.
Now we just have to wait and see what happens tomorrow.
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