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AMERICAN FORK -- After 10 years in America, the Correa family of American Fork is packing, facing deportation Thursday. They came from Argentina, seeking asylum from anti-Mormon harassment. But this is their last day: Thursday morning, the parents and children will be on the plane to Buenos Aires.
"I feel hurt. That's what we feel, hurt, because we gave to this country a lot of years and a lot of sacrifice," Debora Zalazar said.
On Oct. 26 ICE agents took Claudio Correa into custody. Since then, their family attorney has tried to defer the deportation order, but those efforts failed.
The Correa family got just one day's notice to pack everything.
"We were waiting for them for a week to tell us, you know, guessing that, ‘Oh, yeah, we probably can do this or that.' But finally, they say no, and then they say, ‘Tomorrow, you're leaving,'" Zalazar said.
Maggie, 14, and her 17-year-old brother Kevin are honor students. Ten years ago, they came to the U.S. with their parents on a visa waiver. Then the family applied for asylum. They became tax-paying citizens and waited for years to gain legal status. But a judge ultimately denied their petition, and last week, ICE agents took Claudio.
He has Hepatitis C, which he contracted in America. Kevin has juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Both need continued medical treatment. Zalazar says the people who work in immigration have no heart.
"We have a very high concept about this country. So, very disappointed that a family like us, they don't even allow us to stay a little bit longer," Zalazar said.
Zalazar is an artist; pendants and earrings decorate her table. She's hoping to make a little more money with the sale of her jewelry before she has to leave. Friends from the neighborhood and LDS Ward have come by to help pack and buy something.
The family will leave a lot behind, though. As contract workers for a stained glass company, they helped create the windows in the Draper, Rexburg and Twin Falls LDS temples.
Zalazar says her faith has given her strength -- it's in God's hands.
"We came to Utah to work, to share my gospel, you know, the church I belong. I think He's the only one who knows why he's taking us back there," she said.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, tried to help the family but to no avail. Zalazar said immigration officials have told her that her husband will be at the airport Thursday morning so that the family can leave together. They may not return to the U.S. for 10 years.
E-mail: cmikita@ksl.com
