SAN DIEGO (CNN/KSWB) – An army officer says he is concerned about his mother after she was deported to Mexico on Thursday.
Rocio Rebollar Gomez has lived in San Diego for 31 years and is the mother of three children, including U.S. Army 2nd Lt. Gibram Cruz.
The family says because Cruz is an intelligence officer, getting permission to travel outside the U.S. for personal reasons is difficult, and seeing his mother once she is back in Mexico will be challenging.
“I’m here essentially to say goodbye to my mom,” he told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Gomez tried to apply to a special program that protects relatives of U.S. military members while they serve, but she was denied.
“We feel betrayed to be honest. A country that I’m serving in, which I’ve served proudly– these policies that are put in place to keep my family safe have let me severely down. And there’s a saying in the military– family first, mission second. How am I supposed to put my family first right now when she’s in a whole country, which I can’t visit? Where I have no control over of keeping her safe,” Lt. Gibram Cruz said.
Ice had told Gomez that she would have to leave the country in January.
Though she reportedly has no criminal record this would be the fourth time Gomez has been deported.
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