By ALFREDO CORCHADO
Mexico Bureau
Published: 09 October 2013 09:47 PM
Updated: 09 October 2013 09:47 PM

EL PASO — A U.S. immigration judge has denied a Dallas mother her asylum petition and ordered her back to Mexico, the country from which she fled after the killing of her two sons.

The attorney for Rosa Carrera said an appeal has been filed, leaving Carrera and her family, including two U.S.-born children, facing an uncertain future. The fate of her children is especially frustrating, said her husband, Maximiliano Perez, who lives in the Dallas area.

“She doesn’t want to live without her children,” he said. “But what kind of fate awaits them in Mexico?”

Carrera arrived in Dallas 19 years ago with two sons, 5 and 6 years old at the time, and overstayed her tourist visa. She remained in Dallas, hoping she could someday fix her and her children’s illegal status.

In 2012 her two sons left for Mexico, one willingly and the second deported by immigration authorities. Weeks after their arrival, both were killed by suspected drug traffickers. Carrera returned to Mexico to bury them and to seek justice. Once there, she was advised by family members to return to Dallas for her own safety.

She ended up as a felon after she was unable to convince a U.S. immigration agent that she faced a threat of violence if she returned to Mexico after her sons were killed. Instead, she signed a voluntary deportation, thinking that if she didn’t comply she might never see her U.S.-born children again, she later told her attorney. She returned to Mexico and tried crossing the Rio Grande illegally. She was caught and is awaiting deportation.

“Rosa’s request for withholding of removal under the Convention Against Torture was denied, and now we face a long appeal process,” said her attorney, Brenda Villalpando, adding that the process can take months.

A spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement had no comment.

Carrera’s case is highlighted in a report, “Turning Migrants Into Criminals,” by New York-based Human Rights Watch, an international human rights organization.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/natio...-to-mexico.ece