Newly reunited family in Hamilton torn apart by looming deportation order
CBC
The family was jolted awake by loud banging at the front door.
Andrea Pardo Rodriguez, her husband Nelson Martinez Mora and their daughters emerged from their bedrooms Sunday morning, still in their pyjamas, and opened the door.
The couple and Valentina, 22, Camila, 26, and Jesica Martinez Pardo, 27, were shocked to see six people, dressed in plain clothes, in the hallway of their Hamilton apartment, Valentina later told CBC Hamilton in Spanish.
Pardo Rodriguez, 45, and Martinez Mora, 48, have been in Canada since 2021 as refugee claimants.
The six people, who the family assumed were agents with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), were let in and asked for the parents, said Jesica.
None of the six spoke Spanish and the Colombian family speaks little English.
According to the daughters, none of the people they believed were CBSA officers presented identification; they used a cellphone to translate the message that their parents were being detained. The daughters also asked if Camila, who is blind and has an intellectual disability, could go with her parents, but they were told no.
The couple was allowed to change into regular clothes before they were put in handcuffs, the daughters said. They said they were given a small slip of paper with the address of the Immigration Holding Centre in Toronto, and then watched, tears streaming down their faces, as their parents were taken away.
"It's hard for me seeing my parents in that situation... We came here with the hope of being together," Valentina said two days later. "Seeing my sister [Camila] really breaks my heart, because I don't think we're bad people. We're here looking for our well-being and leave behind all these problems."
Camila is attached to her mother, Valentina said. Their cousin, Lianis Solanguie Poveda Mora, who lives in the same building, recounted how Jesica, the eldest daughter, came to her soon after, crying and telling her their parents had been taken.
"Camila was uncontrollable. We didn't know what to do. She couldn't stop crying because she depends on her mom and dad for everything she does," Poveda Mora said in Spanish. "Her mom is the one who serves her food, cools it down for her, walks with her by the hand, everything. Her mom is her shadow."
In Bogota, Pardo Rodriguez was a leader with Iurazoli, a non-profit organization that helps people living with disabilities, said a letter written by the group's legal representative in 2021 and included in the documents filed as part of her refugee claim.
In the role, Pardo Rodriguez became well known in the local human rights community and for raising awareness about the discrimination faced by people with disabilities, the letter said.
The paramilitary group Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC) targeted Iurazoli, leaving threatening messages on social media.
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