My name is Jesika Y. Arena, I am a US citizen. I was born and raised in Puerto Rico. I married Jose A. Hernandez (Jose Amilcar Hernandez) in June 2013. We do not have children together but he has been a wonderful father to my 3 children.

I am writing this letter pleading for help on behalf of my family. My husband and I have known each other since 2005. Before we got married he was a great friend that always was there helping me. In 2010 we decided to have a relationship as a couple and finally we got married in 2013.

Jose is from Honduras and arrived in the United States on December of 1999. He came to the US illegally and was detained when he was crossing the border in Brownsville, TX. He went several times to his hearing from 2000 and 2001. His venue was transfer from Los Fresnos, TX to Louisville, KY because he moved to live with his previous “in-laws” in the Lexington, Kentucky. Around October 2001, he was kicked out and he didn’t have a place to live. He stayed in a cheap Motel and Hotels in Richmond, KY. He couldn’t contact the Immigration Department to change address because he didn’t have a permanent address at that time. But he was checking his mail at his “in-laws” twice a week. He didn’t got a letter to remind him of his next immigration court hearing. And I’m not saying that Immigration failed to mail the letter, what I’m saying that his previous “in-laws” either hide/destroyed/toasted the important letters he was receiving at that address.

On November 2001, the Immigration Judge ordered a deportation in Absentia. At this point my husband was afraid to go back to Honduras
He appealed to reopen his case and it was denied twice, and now he has until April 21st, 2016 to appeal on the 6th Circuit Court; which his attorney said that if the case was denied twice, on the 6th Circuit Court it will be deny too. All motions to reopen have been denied. I’m being told that legally there is nothing we can do other than for him to leave the country and start serving the 10 year bar.
I honestly feel that immigration should consider reopening his case for the reasons below:

1. He is my husband and he is a wonderful step-dad for my children.

2. He is a father of two (2) US Citizens children, and he is current on his Child Support obligations.

3. He is helping me to take care of my parents, specially my mother who has been a cancer patient for three (3) times, and I’m the one who take my mom to all her medical appointment as well to my dad. And my husband and I helped to pay some of my parent’s medical bills. My mom had two (2) heart failures in June 2014 and November of 2015 and she is very attached to my husband.

4. I need him because of my High Risk Family History of Cancer, I got a tumor on my left ovary that it was removed by a total hysterectomy in August 2010. Now I have a small lump on my left breast that need to be monitor.

It’s so sad that now my family is subject to being separated for years. One of my children is a senior in High School and his graduation is coming soon. We are getting our plans together for my child to go to college. This situation is putting my whole family in an extreme hardship emotionally, physically and mentally. It’s devastating that my husband has to go when we need him the most.

Please understand my husband has been in this country USA for 16 years and 4 months and have never been arrested. He has no criminal record. He has work hard for all this years. He is a very compassion person that likes to help people. He has provided to me and my children everything he could that is necessary in our life. He has done so many wonderful things to my children, that I don’t have any words to thanks him for all the love, care and all those nights that he spent with my children when they were sick, sad, upset, and they needed a father next to them.

We are a hard worker family, and we don’t live on government assistance. Please help us stay together. My children’s father has barely been around for them, and my husband (Jose A. Hernandez) has been a real dad for all my children.

Please help me keep my husband here in the US. My husband is from San Pedro Sula which is a very violent city in Honduras. In 2013, various sources labeled San Pedro Sula the "murder capital of the world". My husband worked for Direccion Nacional de Investigacion Criminal (DNIC) “National Direction of Criminal Investigations in Honduras” and he arrested so many people around the country and now he is afraid for his life if he goes back to Honduras. Please help me stop my husband from being deported help us stay together. I am praying and I beg you to please have mercy on my family and help me with my situation.

Thank you for your time and considering my request.

Sincerely,

Jesika Y. Arena