LIVERMORE, Calif. — U.S. immigration forces deported Miguel Lopez, a welder and mechanic at the Wente Vineyards winery here, to Mexico June 7, just hours before a judge issued a temporary restraining order barring his expulsion from the U.S. Lopez, who has lived and worked in this country since the 1990s, is married and has three children. He applied for adjustment of status in 2007, which was denied, and has kept fighting for it ever since.
Members of the Socialist Workers Party spoke with his daughter, Stephanie Lopez, here June 22. “He’s stressed,” she said of her father. “He doesn’t want to lose his job.”
Lopez was arrested by immigration police May 27 while he was conducting a routine check-in at an immigration office.
Teachers at the high school that all his children have attended helped organize a “Bring Miguel Home” rally of several hundred June 4 at the Livermorium Plaza.
He was scheduled to appear at the court hearing June 7 where the judge granted the restraining order against his deportation, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials had driven him to Tijuana, Mexico, early that morning.
“He was wrongfully removed, without a hearing, and we’re fighting that,” Stephanie Lopez said.
“We thought we needed to publicize what happened,” Granada High School teacher Laura Bertoli Brown said in a phone interview. “The next step is a hearing July 8. We’re gathering letters from the community on Miguel Lopez’s character and we’re thinking of doing a freeway sign that reads, ‘Bring Miguel home!’” Betsy Wilson, another teacher, is working on getting the California Teachers Association union to join the fight.
A GoFundMe page has raised more than $50,000 to defray the legal expenses of the campaign to bring Lopez home. The link is https://www.gofundme.com/f/bring-miguel-back-to-his-loved-ones.