High court upholds removal of two children from illegal immigrant

01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, July 20, 2008

By Scott MacKay

Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — Rosalia Lopez-Navor entered the United States illegally from Mexico in 2003, bringing her two-year-old son and the old dream of generations of immigrants: starting a new life in America.

She landed in Rhode Island, where her dream was shattered and chaos enveloped her life.

Now, a recent Rhode Island Supreme Court decision has cost Lopez-Navor her two children.

She came to Rhode Island via the Arizona border to join her boyfriend, Raul DeRosas-Quintero, who was then living illegally in Rhode Island.

In testimony in Rhode Island Family Court, Lopez-Navor said she met DeRosas-Quintero when she was 15 and he was 22. DeRosas-Quintero left Mexico in January 2001, and Lopez-Navor stayed in Mexico, pregnant with his child.

In August 2003, Lopez-Navor, with the boy she named Alexis, followed her boyfriend to Rhode Island.

DeRosas-Quintero paid “coyotesâ€