Two years after being deported to Jesús Maria, Aguascalientes, in Mexico, Goleta mother Juana Flores reunited with her 10 children and 18 grandchildren with the help of U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara).
On June 2, Carbajal announced that the Department of Homeland Security granted Flores humanitarian parole, allowing her to stay in the U.S. with her family for one year.
In March 2021, Carbajal wrote a letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asking him to grant the Flores’ family request for humanitarian parole.
According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, humanitarian parole
is used to bring someone who is otherwise inadmissible into the United State for a temporary period of time due to an emergency.
The Sun reached out to Carbajal’s office for clarification on why Flores was granted humanitarian parole, however a spokesperson for the office said the Department of Homeland Security makes that determination and Carbajal’s office isn’t privy to the exact reason they granted it.
Flores’ parole began on June 4, when she returned to the U.S for one year.
In a statement, Carbajal said Flores’ deportation under the “Trump administration left a hole in our Central Coast community that I’m glad will now be filled.”
“I will continue fighting to secure a permanent stay for Juana and reunite other families that were cruelly separated under the Trump administration,” he said. “The families of our service members deserve our respect and admiration, not deportation, which is why I will continue working to pass the Protect Patriot Parents Act and advance legislation that fixes our broken immigration system.”
Carbajal’s office has been working with the Flores Family since 2019 when he introduced the Protect Patriot Parents Act to create a pathway for parents of veterans to become permanent residents while continuing to live in the U.S. The legislation would apply to parents of U.S. citizens who serve in the U.S. Armed Forces either on active duty or as a reserve member.
Flores’ son, Caesar Flores, is a senior airman E-4 for the U.S. Air Force and wanted to help his mom with her legal status. Even though individuals who serve in the U.S. Armed Forces have a pathway to citizenship, that option is not available to their parents.
On March 5, the Protect Patriots Act was referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship.
Flores was deported in 2019 after visiting her dying mother in Mexico and attending her mother’s funeral in 1999. Flores left and re-entered the U.S. without legal status, an action that results in an immediate bar from returning to the U.S.
Flores was deported and barred from returning for 10 years, and she’s served two years of that bar thus far.
This article appears in Jun 10-17, 2021.