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UPDATE: Jose Francisco Garcia Rodriguez, A 73-year-old Lafayette resident who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week, is back home after spending a week in an ICE detention center in Evangeline Parish.
Tyler Garcia, Rodriguez’s son, posted an update on his father’s status via his Facebook account.
The family of a 73-year-old grandfather is pleading for his release after immigration enforcement agents took him into custody near his home in Lafayette while on his way to work. He’s at an ICE processing center in Evangeline Parish. The family says Jose Francisco Garcia Rodriquez has lived in the U.S. for 45 years since he fled Cuba. Rodriguez’s stepdaughter Christian Cooper Riggs posted this emotional plea on Facebook.
“How a 73-year-old man, who has been allowed to be in our country for 45 years, raising a family, paying taxes, paying into social security which he has never gotten, could possibly be a danger to our country?” Riggs asked.
Riggs says Rodriguez tried to become an official citizen for the last ten years, but because he committed a crime in the first couple of years after he arrived in the U.S., he’s been unsuccessful. She says for the last 43 years her stepfather has been a modeled immigrant.
“I understand that there are really bad people that we have to find but starting with 73-year-old grandfathers who have heart conditions, and who are caretakers, is not the solution,” Riggs said.
Rodriguez cares for his wife who has dementia. Riggs says she understands the United States has an immigration problem, but a 73-year-old man, who works and cares for his family and has lived in the United States for 45-years is not part of the problem.
“It is a problem that has to be fixed with a surgeon’s blade, not a machete,” Riggs said.
Riggs is asking for your prayers and if the public wants to get involved, they can contact their elected officials and ask for her stepfather’s release.
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