Adios to pair from Mexico
UPDATED: 2007-08-03 01:25:28 MST

Illegal immigrants booted from Canada

By SHAWN LOGAN, SUN MEDIA


The hopes of two Mexican men who slipped into Canada to cash in on Alberta's booming economy and send money to their families were dashed yesterday when they were ordered deported at an immigration hearing.

Abel Delgado, 41, and Gabriel Gonzalez-Valdiva, 30, both wearing handcuffs and leg shackles and wearing government-issued blue jumpsuits, were told at an immigration and refugee board hearing they could no longer stay in Canada.

It was ruled they illegally entered the country on July 24, sneaking past the Chief Mountain border crossing about 200 km southwest of Calgary before being arrested by RCMP officers shortly afterward.

Another man, Sergio Solis-Juarez, 28, was shipped out of the country yesterday.

Delgado, who lives with his family in the U.S., said he was only trying to make a better life for his wife and son and he has learned his lesson.

"I tried to get a job and get money so I could get my son into a better school," he said, noting he was hoping to get away from poverty and gang problems and pleaded to be sent back to his native Mexico instead of the U.S.

"I felt I was doing something right but I learned the hard way -- I did it for my family."


Paul Kyba, the federal adjudicator, said Delgado's entry into Canada with the intention of finding illegal work, along with a house burglary conviction in Texas in 1987, were enough to send him packing.

Gonzalez-Valdiva, speaking through an interpreter, had nothing to say when he was ordered deported, an event likely to occur within three days, the board heard.

Two other Mexican men who also snuck into the country but eluded capture are still on the lam and the search has been called off, said RCMP Cpl. Patty Neely.

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