OAKLAND, Calif — As part of the effort to keep her husband Alonso Zaragoza from being deported, Maria Torres, center, who works at both Walmart and McDonald’s, organized with her co-workers to pass out flyers to win support for the fight among participants in a June 30 rally here, where thousands demonstrated against the separation of families at the border.
Zaragoza, a cook, had been held without bail at a county detention facility in Richmond since his arrest in July 2017 for being in the country without documents the government accepts after having been deported 25 years ago. A legal fight over the last year challenged his original deportation, but in late May the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled him deportable.
On their signs and in discussions supporters of Zaragoza and Torres raised the need to fight for amnesty, not only for Zaragoza, but for the over 11 million immigrant workers who don’t have papers recognized by the U.S. government.
An announcement at the rally urged people interested in learning about the case to meet Torres after the program. Many came forward to offer support. But two days later Zaragoza was transported without warning to an ICE building in Stockton, and then deported to Tijuana, Mexico.