Until Daddy Returns

Please find it in your hearts to give whatever you can to this struggling family. Lidio and Leslie were neighbors who I came to love, along with their two beautiful girls, Suzy and Maddy. 

Lidio did what the lawyer advised and left in April 2019 with the necessary paperwork for a border interview process that was supposed to take a maximum of two weeks. He was refused re entry and then continues to be refused at subsequent interviews for obscure reasons after going to great lengths (and expense) to produce new documentation  as requested. He is surrounded by other people encountering the same difficulty with returning to the US. Currently, he is being asked to produce a waiver that he was not asked for before. The hurdles seem to get invented as he tries to move past them. His lawyer has pointed out that if he supposedly needed this waiver at the first interview, why was he invited to interview without it?  We can only guess that the current climate about border control is deeply affecting Lidio’s application for US citizenship. And while they may be worried that he will become  a ward of the state, meanwhile, his wife and 2 girls are definitely at risk for that without his breadwinning ability to support them. 

The problem is that this Daddy left his wife and his 2 beautiful daughters thinking he would be back in 2 weeks with several construction jobs lined up. Leslie estimates that her Dad, who lives on a modest retirement income, has sunk $20,000 into Lidio’s effort to gain citizenship. Leslie had to give up her home next door to me,  to move herself and the girls back in with her dad. Every time that a new interview in Juarez gets scheduled, Lidio must travel there from where he is staying with family and friends closer to Mexico City and then he must pay for room and board upwards of $500/week while he waits for 11-15 business days to find out if his new application gets accepted or rejected. He reports that a bottle of drinking water can cost $15 in Juarez. Leslie understands that this new focus  on having a specific waiver approved means that Lidio may be detained in Mexico for 6 more months at the least but possibly up to 12 more months. 

Lidio is working while he waits, but he earns less than $50/wk doing mason work. 

Suzy is 5 and she is very smart. She misses her dad who she had wrapped around her finger. She refuses to go to kindergarten, though she tried it for one day. The teacher didn’t realize that Suzy’s Dad still had not returned, and once she understood that, she told Leslie that Suzy was most likely suffering from separation anxiety. I would say that is an understatement. I am supporting Leslie with not sending Suzy to school at this time. She can homeschool until going to school seems doable. 

They need financial help to contribute to the costs of buying diapers for Maddy, and food, taking care of basic needs, and taking the pressure off of Grandpa, not to mention paying him back. They will need to be able to help Lidio get back to Juarez for the waiver approval process once they get all that paperwork in place. The paperwork costs money too, needing to be insured and guaranteed to arrive and so on. 

We especially  don’t want Daddy to think for one second about giving up on the legal process in order to risk his life re entering illegally to return to his wife and family. On dark days, he can mention it as a possibility. 

I  can personally attest to Lidio’s generosity as a person. One day he drove into my driveway with a huge lawn chair made of tree trunks that he had made for me. Another time, he brought over more beer for my son’s late night bonfire party. He has given me beautiful houseplants and fresh vegetables from his garden. I wanted to organize a “Go Fund Me” for them months ago, but Lidio said no. I told Leslie now to remind him how important giving is, and that he needs to allow others to experience what he already knows.