BALTIMORE — A promise to protect those related to the Key Bridge victims, many of whom come from mixed-status families, has fallen through for one mother now fighting a deportation proceeding.
Zoila Guerra Sandoval shares a daughter with Jose Mynor Lopez, one of the six construction workers killed during the Key Bridge collapse in 2024.
Promises not kept: Key Bridge collapse victim relative facing deportation
“The news was spreading very quickly, and that was just a moment of tears, of crying,” Guerra Sandoval recalled through a translator. “They couldn't find him. It was almost two months before they found him, and all our thoughts ran through our head. What happened to him exactly? Where did he end up?”
Now her attorney is working to ensure she doesn’t experience yet another tragedy: being separated from her 7-year-old child.
Under the Biden Administration, immigration attorney Rachel Girod says her client was told all she had to do was apply for permanent status and it’d be granted. They applied under two programs, deferred action and parole in place.
But due to clerical errors, they never went through, and by the time they tried to amend the applications, a new administration was taking over.
“I reckon with every single day, just how cruel and blind to humanity this administration is,” Girod said.
Guerra Sandoval received notice of deportation proceedings earlier this month.
Statement from USCIS Spokesman Zach Kahler:
“While any loss of life is tragic, deferred action and parole in place, like all immigration benefits, are granted on a case-by-case basis and done so according to law. The burden of proof squarely rests on the alien to establish their eligibility to remain in the United States legally.”
When asked how she feels about the current political climate for immigrants, Guerra Sandoval said:
“The laws have changed. And in the change of laws, we lose hope.”
But she believes not all hope is lost for her.
“I believe in God, and I have faith in God that nothing will happen. I have a good attorney, and I again have faith that I’ll remain here and nothing bad will happen to me,” Guerra Sandoval said.
“Whatever poor ICE attorney gets assigned this case is going to have to reckon with that as well because we’re going to put everything in front of them and we’re going to make it as impossible as we possibly can, for any immigration judge, no matter how loyal to the president they are, impossible to deny this case,” Girod said.
Girod says they plan to apply for a green card, a last resort that can only be granted by an immigration judge.
Guerra Sandoval’s hearing is scheduled for July.
