Fighting disease and deportation
Relatives hope for mercy from ICE as a mother battles a cancer that’s merciless
By SUSAN CARROLL
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

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When Edy Velasquez came home after working the late shift at his second job, his wife was asleep on the floral-patterned living room couch, propped up on three pillows.

Quietly, he started the ritual he’d performed for the past three weeks. He attached a line of antibiotics to the tube that ran into her chest, careful not to awaken her. Then he sank into an overstuffed armchair by her head, and for the next hour and a half he watched his high school sweetheart breathe in and out.

Edy Velasquez, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, is counting the days, the hours, he has left in Houston with his wife, Aura Velasquez, and his U.S.-born son. In February, Aura, 48, was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. Less than three weeks later, a letter from U.S. immigration officials arrived in the mail. The letter said Edy and his 24-year-old stepdaughter, Jennifer Palencia Mayorga, had lost their appeal to stay in the United States.

They have until May 17 to leave the country. One more week.
“It hurts my heart,â€