UPDATED: Texas DACA Recipient Dies Rescuing Flood Victims
Last edited Mon Sep 4, 2017, 11:09 AM - Edit history (1)
Source: The Daily Beast
The body of a volunteer rescuer in Houston who went missing last week while trying to save flood victims was recovered on Sunday. Alonso Guillen, a 31-year-old disc jockey and recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, is thought to have drowned after a boat he and his friends were using for rescue operations capsized last Wednesday. Family members pulled his body from a creek on Sunday afternoon, the Houston Chronicle reports. His father, Jesus Guillen, said he had asked his son not to go out during the storm but his son insisted on helping people. Guillen was born in Piedras Negras, Mexico, and moved to Lufkin in his teens. Family members said he was allowed to remain in the U.S. thanks to DACA, which prevents the deportation of immigrants who were brought to the U.S. under the age of 16. Guillen’s death comes as President Trump reportedly prepares to end the DACA program. Guillen’s mother, Rita Ruiz de Guillen, said from her home in Mexico that she hoped U.S. authorities would allow her in the country to bury her son, but she was previously turned back at the border.
READ IT AT THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/texas-daca-recipient-dies-rescuing-flood-victims
UPDATE:
DACA recipient died saving Harvey victims — but Customs won’t let his mother into the US to bury him
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES
04 SEP 2017 AT 10:36 ET
Alonso Guillen, a 31-year-old disc jockey, who was born in Piedras Negras, Mexico, moved to the United States, under the shelter of DACA. He has been living in Lufkin, Texas, ever since he was a teenager.
As soon as Harvey made landfall, Alonso borrowed a towboat along with some friends and headed to Southern Texas to try and aid people who were trapped due to the natural disaster, Houston Chronicle reported. They were on their way to an apartment complex near the Interstate 45 and Beltway 8 when the hurricane struck the bridge over the creek and capsized Wednesday. Search crews went looking for Alonso after he went missing. His body was discovered on Friday 1 p.m. local time (2 p.m. EDT).
-snip-
Alonso’s mother, Rita Ruiz de Guillen, 62, who has applied for a legal status is still awaiting entry into the U.S. After learning of her son’s death, Rita requested the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials to grant her a humanitarian visa so that she could come to Houston, Texas, and bury her son, but in vain.
“I’ve lost a great son, you have no idea,” she said. “I’m asking God to give me strength.” She also added: “When we are with God, there are no borders. Man made borders on this earth.”
more
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/09/daca-recipient-died-saving-harvey-victims-but-customs-wont-let-his-mother-into-the-us-to-bury-him/
= new reply since forum marked as read
is heartbreaking. " Guillen’s mother, Rita Ruiz de Guillen, said from her home in Mexico that she hoped U.S. authorities would allow her in the country to bury her son, but she was previously turned back at the border."
"Alonso Guillen, a 31-year-old disc jockey, who was born in Piedras Negras, Mexico, moved to the United States, under the shelter of DACA." (Emphasis added by me.)
The Houston Chronicle article does not say how old Guillen was when he moved to the USA but it is clear it was well before DACA was begun:
Alonso Guillen was a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which temporarily lifted the threat of deportation for immigrants brought to the U.S. before they were 16, family members said.
His father is a lawful permanent, but his mother is still in the application process for legal status.
Reached at her home in Piedras Negras, Mexico, across the border from Eagle Pass, Rita Ruiz de Guillen, 62, said she is heartbroken.
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/article/Missing-volunteer-pulled-from-Cypress-Creek-12170986.php
What a cruel country the US has become to prevent the mother to attend the funeral of a young man who was not allowed to become a legal resident but who gave his life to try to save others.