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Anonymous New Jersey man 'saves family’s home after parents are deported to Mexico'

Stranger is also giving siblings money for Mexico trip so they can see their parents

Maya Oppenheim
Monday 09 July 2018 15:42 BST
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An anonymous donor has stepped in to help Janet, Erwing, an Oscar Jr Santos with the mortgage on their family home.
An anonymous donor has stepped in to help Janet, Erwing, an Oscar Jr Santos with the mortgage on their family home.

An anonymous donor has offered to help pay the mortgage and other bills for three young people whose parents were deported to Mexico.

Humberta and Oscar Campos extradited during the Christmas period after living in the US for more than three decades.

"Fight for your dreams because life continues and you will always find good people that support you,” Mr Campos, told his children, Oscar Jr, 24, Janet, 22, and 15-year-old Erwing, before he boarded a flight to Mexico City. “There are a lot of good people. Don't give your hopes up."

Mr Campos previously explained that he crossed the border into Texas in 1989, to escape the violence in his hometown of Tamaulipas.

Along with his wife who also entered illegally, the couple bought a home in the city of Bridgeton, New Jersey and started a landscaping business, which has temporarily been taken over by a relative.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) learned of their illegal entry around 10 years ago and the couple would checked in as required, with the agency every three months.

While their stay of removal was always granted, last year it was removed and under the threat of arrest, the pair voluntarily agreed to leave last year. They are now banned from returning to the US for a decade.

A ICE spokesman previously told CNN that neither parent had a criminal record or had broken any laws apart from entering the country illegally.

After their departure, the children, who are all US citizens, have subsequently struggled to make ends meet.

While Oscar Jr worked as a security guard, Janet put her college courses on hold to work at a supermarket, while Erwing remained in school.

However, Arnold Santos, a deacon at the family's church who is helping the children while their parents fight to come back to America, told CNN an anonymous man is taking over their mortgage and bill payments for the next two years.

Donations – totalling more than $10,000 (£8,500) - have also flooded in.

The anonymous donor is also giving the siblings with $6,000 (£5,100) for a trip to Mexico so they can visit their parents.

Immigration to the US has dominated international debate in recent weeks in the wake of US president Donald Trump's decision to introduce a zero tolerance policy that prosecutes everyone who enters the US illegally.

Last month, Mr Trump tried to forestall a mounting crisis by signing an executive order declaring that families should be kept together.

However, 17 US states and Washington DC have filed a lawsuit to force the Trump administration to reunite approximately 2,000 separated children with their parents.

They argued that the world leader’s executive order did not end the zero tolerance policy and only made a “vague” declaration to uphold family unity.

Administration officials previously admitted they had not drawn up a plan for how to reunite children with their parents, amid reports some as young as five were being made to represent themselves in court.

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