A well-known church leader from Oklahoma has been deported to Mexico after immigration authorities detained him in Tulsa during a routine immigration appointment.
Pastor Wulfrano Portillo attended the appointment on 10 March and was returned to Coahuila, Mexico, by the morning of 12 March, according to his daughter, Tania.
"We were trying to find him, because after he was detained, we didn't hear anything from him," she told 2 News Oklahoma. "We didn't know anything about him. So we kept checking the detainee search website, and nothing was coming up. Nothing was coming up. When we finally did hear from him, he was already in Mexico, so he had no fighting chance.”
Pastor Wulfrano was reportedly subject to a 2007 removal order and has lived in the United States since he was 16.
He had reportedly built his life in Oklahoma, where he served as a pastor for several decades.
Tania said her father had been attending his appointments, had a work permit and Social Security card, and was on track for U-Visa approval.
"He has been trying to do everything the correct way, fighting to stay in this country, and yet that has not been good enough," she said "Most of his life he's lived it here, so he was sent to a country he doesn't know anymore."
Tania called her father the "anchor" of their family.
"He's what held us steady, and now that our anchor is no longer here with us, physically, I feel like our boat is just tumbling and we're trying to learn how to navigate those waters without him," she said. "So it hasn't been easy. It's been really hard.”
