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Queensbury couple divided by immigration policy and thousands of miles
Posted at: 06/18/2012 5:23 PM
| Updated at: 06/18/2012 5:54 PM
By: Mark Mulholland
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QUEENSBURY - Deysi Rollo is all alone in the country she fled more than a decade a go.
"I just want to be with the people I love. I have no one here," said Rollo via Skype Monday from her apartment in Mexico.
As a 12-year-old child, she was sent to the United States by her mother, to flee an abusive relationship. "And she was only thinking about the best way to keep us protected."
Fast forward several years. Deysi meets an area man now living in San Diego after his time in the Navy. The two fall in love and get married.
Jason Rollo and his wife want to get her past straightened out, so she can one day become an American citizen.
"You need to do things the right way," said Jason.
Even though she had no say in entering the U.S. illegally, Deysi and Jason wanted to make it right. They hired an attorney who told them that she should gather up all of her paperwork and go back to the U.S. Consulate in Mexico to apply for a waiver.
She went there last July and Deysi says the State Department employee misunderstood, accusing her of using a false birth certificate.
"She didn't want to listen to me. I was like I need to talk to someone and she was like, 'Next!'"
Deysi's trip to Mexico was supposed to last a month, then she'd be reunited with her husband. Now, almost a year later, she's stuck in Mexico, with no return in sight.
Leaving her naval veteran husband, frustrated with his government and wishing President Obama had shifted his policy sooner than last week, when he ended deportation for immigrants brought here illegally as children.
"We try to go by the way the law is written and this is how we're paying for it. It is very frustrating," said Jason.
NewsChannel 13 contacted Congressman Chris Gibson's staff Monday afternoon. A spokeswoman says they're willing to assist the Rollos as they work through the process with the State Department.
Jason Rollo says if it can't be worked out soon, he'll move to Mexico to be with his wife.
