The children of a deported Owensboro man must immigrate to Mexico or enter foster care

Evansville

The Cuahua children, from left, Enrique, 5, Cecily, 10, and Marrissiah, 6, finish up their dinner before working on homework and getting ready for bed Tuesday evening. The kids are American citizens, but their father, Antonio Cuahua, was recently deported to Mexico, his country of origin, after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid recently. The children are staying with their aunt, Jacqueline Linares of Owensboro, Ky., until they can obtain passports and then move to Mexico, a country they've never visited, to live with their father.

OWENSBORO, Ky. – After their father was deported in late November, four Owensboro children must immigrate to Mexico or enter foster care.

“I want us to go to Mexico, to be with our dad,” Cecily Cuahua, 10, said from her aunt’s living room in early December. Cecily’s three younger siblings quickly nodded in agreement.

But sending the children to Mexico is no easy feat. They are American citizens. Their father, Antonio Cuahua, 35, was their sole caregiver, and without him here to apply and pay for their immigration documents, the children’s relatives are scrambling.

“It’s a big mess,” said Jacqueline Lynn Linares, who is the children’s aunt and temporary legal guardian. “If we can’t come up with the money, these kids are going to end up in foster care. We can’t support them. Frankly, we aren’t going to be able to carry on much longer.”

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Across the room, Cecily pulled her knees to her chest and tugged at her pigtails.

Cecily Cuahua, 10, sits in her aunt's living room.

The children’s ordeal began the morning of Sept. 29. Antonio was taking them to their babysitter when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers stopped his car.

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Antonio panicked.

“He was crying and saying ‘They’re going to send me back to Mexico,’” Antonio’s son, Anthony Cuahua, 8, said.

As they watched an officer handcuff their father, the children sobbed and asked where they were taking him. An ICE officer told them their dad just had some paperwork to fill out – he would not be deported.

“They lied to us,” Anthony said, clenching his fists.

Antonio hired an immigration lawyer who argued that because he was the sole provider for his children, he should be allowed to stay.

The argument went nowhere.

Antonio had seven misdemeanor criminal convictions in Kentucky, including driving under the influence and two domestic violence convictions, according to ICE. He was also asked to leave the country once before. In 2003, ICE officers caught him illegally entering the U.S. At that time, he was granted a voluntary return to Mexico, which he violated.

Diego gets an abundance of loving from Marrissiah Cuahua, 6, left, and her sister, Cecily, 10, at their aunt's home in Owensboro, Ky., Tuesday evening. The kids are staying with aunt, Jacqueline Linares of Owensboro, Ky., until they can obtain passports and then move to Mexico, a country they've never visited, to live with their father, Antonio Cuahua, who was deported after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid recently.

“They had the right to send me back,” Antonio said recently in a phone interview with the Courier & Press from Mexico. “But they didn’t have the right to separate my kids from me. I asked them to give me some time so I can take my kids with me. They told me, ‘You should have thought about that before you came here.’”

Immigration lawyers say this situation is common.

Many immigrants who are staying in the U.S. illegally have children born in the U.S., giving the children automatic American citizenship.

“It happens all the time that kids are left behind when their parents are deported,” said Megan Alvarez, an immigration lawyer in Evansville. “It’s always really complicated.”

Antonio came to the U.S. when he was 16, looking for work. As a teenager, he worked on tobacco farms in Kentucky, and then at restaurants, before finding more stable employment as a construction worker.

He was “a bit wild” when he was young, said Linares, who has known him since he was a teenager. But after his first daughter was born, he settled down, she said.

Cecily’s mother left Cecily with Antonio when she was 2 months old and hasn’t been a part of her life since, Linares said. Antonio had sole custody of his other three kids for five years, she said.

Antonio Cuahua, 35, takes a selfie with his youngest son Enrique, 5.

His life revolved around his children, Linares said. He braided his daughters’ hair in the morning and cooked them dinner at night. On the weekends, he took them to the park to ride bikes.

“Our daddy buys us drinks when we go to the park,” Marrissiah Cuahua, 6, said with a grin.

The children are having a hard time without Antonio, Linares said. The youngest two cry at night and ask for him. Anthony, the oldest son, acts out at school.

“They always just say, ‘I want to go to my daddy. I want to go to my daddy,’” Linares said.

A judge recently granted Linares permission to send the children to Mexico, she said. But that is just the start of the immigration process. They need copies of the kids’ birth certificates, then passports and documents that will enable them to apply for Mexican citizenship. Linares estimates she’ll need $1,500 to pay for it all. The Mexican Consulate in Indianapolis will pay for plane tickets, she said.

Jizel Diaz, 15, left, has her nails done by mom, Jacqueline Linares of Owensboro, Ky., as her sister, Graciela Citlahua, 14, braids her 10-year-old cousin, Cecily Cuahua's, hair Tuesday night. Cecily Cuahua, 10, her brother, Enrique, 5, and sister, Marrissiah, 6, are staying at their Aunt Jacqueline's house until they can obtain passports and move to Mexico, a country they've never visited, to live with their father, Antonio Cuahua, who was deported after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid recently.

Linares is a single mother raising three kids in a two bedroom house.

“We struggle on our own,” she said. “And now having to come up with the money to take them to their father, it is a financial burden on us.”

Linares plans to ask her church for help, and she’s set up a Go Fund Me page.

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Antonio is staying with relatives in Veracruz, Mexico. He already owns a house there, which he bought years ago in hopes of one day moving back. He plans to move his children into his house and enroll them in school.

The kids want to be with their father, but Linares said they don’t fully understand what is happening.

After dinner fun includes wrestling and spinning in a office chair at the Owensboro, Ky., home of Jacqueline Linares Tuesday evening. Cecily Cuahua, 10, left, and her brother, Enrique, 5, center, are staying at their Aunt Jacqueline's house with their sister, Marrissiah, 6, until they can obtain passports and move to Mexico, a country they've never visited, to live with their father, Antonio Cuahua, who was deported after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid recently.

None of them speak Spanish, and they know little about Mexican culture.

“You’re taking kids who are American and sending them there,” Linares said. “It’s going to be a shocker for them.”

When Linares said this, Anthony quickly sat up.

“No, I know what Mexico is like,” he said. “I saw it in a movie, I saw it in 'Beverly Hills Chihuahua.'”

Linares smiled at Anthony, as the room fell silent.

Regardless of the culture shock, the family agrees, the children should be with their father.

“They’re my kids, it’s my job to take care of them,” Antonio said, clearly crying. “I miss them; I miss them every day. I just want my kids with me.”