Family members are welcoming home a Goleta grandmother who was deported to Mexico two years ago.
24th Representative Salud Carbajal recently announced that Juana Flores was granted humanitarian parole and could reunite with her loved ones in Goleta.
In 2019, federal officials deported Flores, a 57-year-old grandmother who had lived in Goleta for 30 years, to Mexico under the Trump administration's immigration policies.
Juana entered the U.S. from Mexico without a visa in 1988, two years after then-President Ronald Reagan signed the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act granting status to immigrants who came to the country illegally, said Rice.
Between 1988 and 2019, Flores married and lived in California, where she and her husband — a permanent resident since 2009 and U.S. citizen since 2015 — bought a home and raised a family, said officials.
Juana Flores spent 30 years in Goleta raising her family, 10 children and 18 grandchildren.
Flores's family helped a welcome home party for her on Sunday.
"I am very surprised, I'm very happy. It was quite a surprise for me to come home to this party and activities that my children put together," Flores said.
One of Juana's sons is in the Air Force which influenced Rep. Carbajal to introduce the Protect Patriot Parents Act.
If it passes, it would grant citizenship to the parents of U.S. military service members.
