Deportation of husband devastates Tulsa Catholic family

Published: 2008-02-05

TULSA, Okla. (CNS) -- Danny Franco-Torres thought he was legal. He has been granted employment authorization cards for the last six years from the Immigration and Naturalization Service. He has an Oklahoma driver's license and an Oklahoma nondriver identification card. His name is on the mortgage of his house in east Tulsa. He is married to a U.S.-born citizen, and together they have five children, all born in Tulsa, where they are parishioners of St. Francis Xavier Church. He filed and paid income taxes from three different jobs over the past 13 years. He sought and believed he had been granted political asylum in 1993 from war-torn El Salvador. Danny Franco-Torres was with his children when he was arrested Oct. 14 in his Tulsa home by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, and was deported Nov. 28. Since then, his wife, Raquel Franco-Torres, said she and the couple's children have been living one day at a time.

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