Sentence: Deportation

By Saturday, January 10, 2009, the last appeal had been lost. Her bag was packed, and the single 25-year-old mother of three was scheduled to be deported in a day's time.

Yes, the sentence was just. Although here in the U.S. legally with a valid green card, this troubled young woman had repeatedly gotten herself into all manner of serious difficulties, not only bearing three children out of wedlock to two different fathers by the age of 22, but breaking the laws of her adopted country over and over again, racking up tickets and fines and jail time, and finally accruing enough of a record for her visa to be revoked. She'd been incarcerated at the INS immigration detention center in San Antonio for months, while her case wound its way through the system.

The family had rallied around her, pooled their funds to hire a lawyer, done their best to help, but despite months of prayer, visits, hearings, and appeals, the judge's final decision had come down: she was to be deported, sent back to Peru from where she came, with no possibility of return for at least ten years.