La Sed has seen many families ripped apart by deportation

By Amy Lange
Fox 2 News

DETROIT (WJBK) -- The president is calling our current immigration laws "badly broken" and out of date.  La Sed in southwest Detroit is really on the front lines of the fight.  They see so many families torn apart.

Laura Mercado works the front desk at La Sed.  The 24-year-old also has her own story.  One year ago, two weeks before her wedding, her fiancé and the father of her little boy was deported and sent back to Mexico.

"They would speak of him as a criminal and he wasn't," she said.

He was a law abiding man.  His only crime was being undocumented.

"There's a lot of honest living people here that have been here for many, many years, and all they want to do is have a better life," Mercado said.

So now she's raising a little boy alone and earning money for the legal bills.  It will cost thousands of dollars to try and bring her husband back.

Jane Garcia was on a conference regarding the issue Tuesday.  She sees stories like Laura's every day.

"The families are torn apart and when that happens the children are left stranded.  We have to try to find a place to put them," she said.

It's one of the many reasons so many at La Sed are cautiously optimistic as they listen to the president's plan and that of the senators in Washington.  They're hoping there really can be a better path to citizenship than what currently exists.

"It's a lot of red tape and the bureaucracy has gotten harder," said Garcia.

Jose Franco with Michigan One helps undocumented youth.  Over the summer, President Obama removed the threat of deportation for the so-called "dreamers", but he's also looking out for the rest of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.

"We're hoping that not just dream students are the ones that get legalization.  We're hoping that more people like my mom, who's been here since she was little, she's provided for me, that she also benefits from this legislation," Franco said.