Mexican asks Biden for a humanitarian visa to attend his wife's funeral | The State
A visa for one last goodbye.
Mexican Ubaldo Clemente made a final appeal to the President’s Administration on Tuesday Joe Biden and California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla to help him process a humanitarian visa that allows him to attend the funeral of his wife Gladys Clemente, from whom she was separated due to an error in the United States immigration system.
Clemente’s wife passed away on December 17 in Los Angeles coronavirus victimSince then, the immigrant has tried to obtain a permit from the immigration authorities to enter the country and say goodbye to the woman with whom he lived for about 20 years.
“The only thing that is needed is an authorization for the agents of the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) they can give you the entry permit. We already have all the documents ready, ”immigration attorney Jessica Domínguez, who represents Clemente, warned Efe.
The funeral home in charge of processing the burial has said that it can no longer delay the funerals, and has set the limit on Saturday, January 30.
Domínguez explained that the requests to intervene in favor of the immigrant before the Administration of former President Donald Trump were made before Feinstein’s office and that of the current Vice President Kamala Harris, when she was a senator.
Clemente and his attorney were encouraged to wait for Biden’s inauguration to ask for the humanitarian permission.
“We know that the President, Vice President and Senator Feinstein, and now Senator Padilla, are very busy, but time is running out for my client to be able to fire his wife,” insists the attorney.
The separation
The couple was separated by immigration authorities since March 2019, when the two traveled to the consulate of United States in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, to request the Mexican’s permanent residence, but it was denied because he had allegedly been previously arrested.
The consulate rejected the request, arguing that a person by the name of Ubaldo Clemente Garcia she had been detained at the southern border of the US trying to enter the country using false documents and posing as a US citizen.
“It is not like the name of Ubaldo Clemente García is common; then the authorities assumed that this person who was arrested in 1999 was my client, ”Domínguez said.
Although the lawyer tried to explain what happened, the consulate ignored and did not reverse the ban on entry to the United States for life imposed on Ubaldo for allegedly posing as a US citizen.
The last option the lawyer found was to have the Mexican appear before the agents of CBP at the California border with Mexico to have his fingerprints taken and the information collated. In this way, it was found that “the person who was arrested is someone else with that name,” according to the CBP brief.
With this evidence in hand, the couple and the lawyer were waiting for the consulate to reopen the case and grant Clemente residency; However, the pandemic frustrated the couple’s plans and left the immigrant separated from his wife in Mexico.
“If I had been there, maybe things would have been different,” said Clemente, as if trying to change the present he lives.
The desire of the immigrant, who lived for more than 20 years in Los Angeles without committing any crime, is to be allowed to attend his wife’s funeral and accompany his adopted daughters.
Clemente is in Tijuana, Mexico, awaiting permission to travel to Los Angeles.
“This story is evidence of cases that need urgent intervention from this Administration. We are also calling on Senator Padilla and Vice President Harris to help us, ”Domínguez insisted.
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