San Diegan Asylum Seeker may not come home

The fight is not over

"Home, let me come home

Home is wherever I'm with you"

That is the chorus of a song called "Home" that was covered by a father and his little girl and became a viral internet sensation. The cover video has over 27 million views on YouTube, more that the original music video of the song by the band Edward Sharpe & Magnetic Zeros which comes in under 22 million views, despite having been released 8 months prior to the cover.

What is so endearing about this cover? Apart from a cute little girl and her talented father, it is the message that is the driving force behind the cover's popularity. The father playing the guitar, Jorge Narvaez, and his little daughter, Alexa, later appeared on multiple tv shows and even starred in a commercial. Jorge's mother, Alexa's grandmother, was in Mexico at the time the video was uploaded and went viral, and she unable to return to San Diego, CA where she had raised her family. The matriarch entered the US in 1987, from Mexico, by walking across the mountains in order to join the rest of her family. According to her son, she did this so that her child could have a better life.

In an attempt to come home, Jorge's mother, Esther, crossed the border and turned herself in to US Customs and Border Protection to seek asylum, along with 78 others. At the time the video was first released the message was to bring her home. This year, Jorge released a second cover version of "Home" on YouTube, but this time in an attempt to keep his mother in the United States.

Esther was deported in 2007 from the United States as a result an ill-advised attempt to legalize her status in the United States. Her legal adviser told her to voluntarily cross into Ciudad Juarez for an immigration interview, but she ended up getting stuck in Mexico, unable to return. Last month, in an attempt to return to the United States – the place she calls home – she walked to a San Diego port of entry and told immigration officials that she was seeking asylum. The question now is whether Esther faces "credible fear" in Mexico, which is one of the requisites to seek asylum.

Asylum laws were recently relaxed by president Obama when it comes to people seeking asylum with potential terrorist ties. Asylum seekers who provided limited material support, no matter how minor, were previously banned from seeking asylum under the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department rules. In the new exemptions, published in February of this year, discretionary assessments may be made on a case-by-case basis in the case of terrorist ties. But none of the exemptions appear to benefit individuals like Esther. Her asylum case was denied and her only hope now is that her appeal to an immigration judge is favorable.

Esther is currently being held in a detention facility in Arizona, according Narvaez's twitter feed. It is likely that she will now be deported, which is what happens to those that fail the asylum process' credible fear interview. Jorge hopes that his followers on Twitter and YouTube can increase awareness for his mother's case and pressure immigration officials to allow his mom to stay in the US.

borderzonie@gmail.com

@borderzonie

Comments

  • Facebook

  • SanDiegoRed

 
 
  • New

  • Best

    Recent News more

    Subir
    Advertising