ON WHAT GROUNDS WAS SHE ALLOWED TO RETURN?
Deported Woman Returns Home to Family
Last Edited: Sunday, 01 Feb 2009, 9:55 PM EST
Created: Sunday, 01 Feb 2009, 9:55 PM EST

Carolina Sulecio-Hernandez (right), returned to Virginia Sunday to be reunited with her husband and son, Samuel and Sammy Osorio (left).
Roby Chavez
FOX 5 Reporter


Richmond, Va. -- A Virginia family is now on the backside of an immigration nightmare. One woman lost her family after coming clean about her illegal immigration status.

Today, Carolina Sulecio-Hernandez returned from exile after being jailed and deported to Guatemala. Anxiously waiting, the family spotted her.

"There she is," they whispered as she emerged from a crowd of passengers at Reagan National Airport. Seconds later, a young boy ran into his father's arms.

"Papi! Papi! Papi!" young Sammy Osorio yelled.

The tearful reunion marks the end of a painful journey for this Virginia family as a group of well wishers huged the woman and said "welcome back."

The husband and wife are high school sweethearts, married with a young son. However, three years ago she made national headlines and was deported to Guatemala because she was here illegally.

Sunday, the fight came to an emotional end as Carolina was allowed to return.

"Wow! I feel so happy, you have no idea," said Sulecio-Hernandez. "I'm so happy to have her back. It's been so long that you don't know how excited we are. We're very, very happy," said her husband Samuel Osorio of Richmond.

The woman's mother was at the airport too and sobbed as she hugged her. As a child, Carolina's mother never told her she was here illegally. As an adult, Carolina learned the hard way. After trying to make things right, she was cuffed on the spot, jailed for months and then sent back to Guatemala.

In a tearful interview she did back then for an immigrants' rights group, Carolina wept as she said, "I pray every night. I pray that I get out of here because of my son, because my son needs me. He's too little."

Despite it all, she has no regrets. Sunday she said, "I knew something bad was going to happen but I had to do it. I wasn't going to hide from immigration all the time. I couldn't work. I couldn't do anything. I did so because I thought it was the right thing to do."

1,800 miles away from home and back in Guatemala, the young mother didn't know anyone and barely spoke the language. Her life was turned upside down because of her parent's mistake.

She remembers, "I really got depressed; really, really depressed. It was hard the first year I was in Guatemala. It was painful for me to be away from my family."

Lawyers with Hunton and Williams stepped in and took on the case for free and got her back. They were in tears Sunday, too.

"I think the worst thing is the law. The law should be changed. The law should not punish people like Carolina. She was here as a child. She grew up here. She's just as American as you and me," said Suzan Kern of the law firm Hunton & Williams.

Now with this battle over, it's time for this young family to start all over. Her husband said, "I love her a lot and everything. I told her I'd bring her back one way or another. I'm just glad it's over."

A recent human rights watch report showed an estimated 1.6 million children and spouses have been separated from family members and forced to leave the country.
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