News10.net - Oroville Man Deported to Mexico After Living in U.S. Since He Was Seven

OROVILLE, CA - Jose Orozco had lived illegally in the United States since he was seven. He was educated here, paid taxes here, and was raising a family until he tried to file for immigrant status so he could pay taxes with his wife. That's when the U.S. government ordered him to leave the country.

Over the Memorial Day weekend, his family went to visit him for the first time since he was deported. "There's no words to explain it. You have tell your kids that you're going to go see Daddy, but he's not coming home with us. That's all they've known," said his wife, Angela Orozco.

She said the government decided her husband's case did not involve enough hardship to allow him to stay in the United States.

"Who says it's not enough? Who makes that decision?" asked Orozco's step-daughter Janea Barragan. "They want extreme hardship. But whose extreme hardship? Their's or ours?"

Orozco has now been stuck in Mexico for almost a month, with no way to return, even to visit. His wife said she has started to file another appeal with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, but that if worse comes to worse, she and her children may have to relocate to Mexico.