Since this nightmare is still going on, I decided to write out our story in one blog for those who are new.
My name is Keith Hupke. I am a citizen and national of the
United States.
My wife’s name is Olga Ondena Rickley Hupke. In early 2004,
she was a single mother of 2 children without a job and not able to feed her
children. She made the decision to leave her children with family in Honduras
and make the journey north to the United States so she could send money to feed
her family. My wife is the bravest person I know. She does not talk about her
journey across Mexico or what happened during it, but she endured the hardship
for her children.
My wife came to the United States from Honduras on February
1, 2004. She was arrested and taken to the INS’s Eagle Pass office where she
was finger printed, photographed and given paperwork. She received a Notice to
Appear and was released. My wife’s notice to appear did not state a date or
time to reappear.
Fast forward to December of 2005, Hurricane Katrina had
devastated Louisiana and I had been working as a Relief Worker with Safe Harbor
International in New Orleans. I met my future wife and was impressed by her
beauty and her heart to help others. I proposed to her on Valentine’s Day in
2006. Olga came back with me to California and we were married at Calvary
Chapel Rancho Santa Margarita on June 17th of 2006.
After the marriage we went to an Immigration Lawyer and
started the process of bringing her two children to the United States and to
get counsel on clearing up her immigration status. This would be a lengthy
process but we were confident that things would work out. The children received
their Visas after a year and came to the U.S. in 2007. Our blended family
included my son, Alex (now 26) from a previous marriage and her daughter, Amy (now 24) and son, Eduardo (now 14). In May of 2009, our daughter Alicia was born.
In 2011, Olga and I hired a lawyer to help Olga become a
lawful permanent resident. I filed an
I-130 petition on Olga’s behalf on July 21, 2011, which was approved. However, our lawyer discovered that she was
ordered removed in absentia in 2004 and told us that she could be detained and
deported to Honduras.
We received notice the first week of May 2012 that USCIS
wanted to see us in Santa Ana, California on the 1st of June. We were surprised
and thought maybe we would not have to have her leave the country for Honduras.
Our lawyer called us a few days later and told us that if Olga showed up for
the appointment on June 1st she would be taken into custody and placed in a
detention center. We needed to have her leave the country before the
appointment and I would attend the meeting alone. So, on May 24, 2012, the day after our
daughter’s 3rd birthday my wife had to self-deport herself to Honduras. I traveled to Honduras with Olga, Eduardo,
and Alicia and then returned for the meeting with USCIS.
My meeting with USCIS on June 1, 2012 was exactly what the
lawyer had said. USCIS claimed they were only checking to see if we had a valid
marriage, although when USCIS found out my wife was not with me they changed
the office to meet me in (ICE officers would no longer be needed to arrest
her). They already had copies of our bank statements, family photos and
everything else that was needed to prove our marriage was valid.
Our next step was to wait for our appointment at the U.S.
Embassy in Honduras. We finally received the appointment for October 16th of
2012. I flew down and we went to the appointment expecting to hear that my wife
was not eligible for a Visa, but could apply for the waiver program. Instead we
heard that my wife was not eligible for entry into the U.S. for 3 reasons and
one of them had a penalty of a 5 year ban that was not able to be waived. I was
shocked and speechless as I questioned the State Department Officer as to what
we were to do as a family. I asked her if she would have her children grow up
Honduras and she replied no.
After calling my lawyer, I found out that they were banning
my wife for failure to appear at her deportation hearing. My lawyer questioned
us and asked if she had ever received any other paper work that had a date to
appear. The answer was, NO.
After the Embassy appointment, I needed to return to the
United States because I had a job in California and brought back Eduardo since
he was enrolled in school and needed to start the 5th grade. Olga and
Alicia stayed in Honduras.
I hired another lawyer in San Antonio, TX to fight the 5
year ban Olga received for failure to appear. In August of 2013, the Judge
reopened and dismissed the charges against Olga.
On September 17, 2013 an I-601 Application for Waiver of
Ground of Inadmissibility was filed and received by DHS, USCIS Nebraska Service
Center.
At the time Olga left for Honduras, I was working long
shifts at a nuclear plant in California (sometimes I worked from 6am––6pm and
other times I worked all night from 6pm––6am).
Therefore, I was not available to provide the kind of round the clock
care that a three-year-old child would need.
That is why we decided that it was best for Alicia to stay with Olga in
Honduras until Olga could return to the United States.
In May of 2014 our lawyer requested the help of the
Ombudsman at the USCIS office. He was
contacted by the Ombudsman office in August of 2014 that they were closing the case due
to CIS informing the Ombudsman on the 20th of August that a decision had been
made. We waited till mid-September and
still did not receive any communications from the USCIS office. The Ombudsman’s
office was contacted again and reopened the case.
On October 30, 2014, we found out that USCIS had made a
decision to deny my wife a VISA. They said the reason for the decision would be
mailed to us. We received the paper work on November 4th and USCIS has denied
her VISA for three reasons.
• First for
being in the U.S. for over a year without a VISA, that has a 10 year ban but
can be waived if I can prove it would be a hardship for the children and I to
be separated for her. This one we have all the paper work done and have been
told should be no problem.
• Second
for failure to appear for her hearing in Texas. We had that case reopened last in 2013 and all charges were dismissed. We just have to point this out to the
Government.
• Third,
and this one is a new one for us and the one we have to fight, they said when she
entered the United States she was smuggling in another person. This charge
carries a lifetime ban from being able to come to the United States.
When Olga was in Mexico, she was instructed by the Coyote
that when she crossed the border to stand on the other side with a young man
and say that he was her nephew. If she did not do this, she was informed by the
Coyote that she would be sent back across the border by ICE and the Coyote
would leave her to the dogs in Mexico. Not wanting to risk being raped and lose
the money that was spent to get to the U.S., she did as she was instructed. Now
she is banned for Human Trafficking.
Imagine for a few moments if you were a young woman in a
foreign country fearing for your safety and only wanting to do what was best
for your family, what would you have done? Until we walk in someone else’s
shoes we can’t truly understand what they were feeling.
Our lawyer filed an appeal with the Nebraska USCIS office
that made the ruling in November of 2014. In December of 2014 due to financial stress of trying to
support two households, we decided to sell our home in California. I sent
Eduardo to live with his grandparents and finish out his 7th grade
in Florida.
In February of 2015 the house sold in California (I had to
have Olga go to the U.S. Embassy in Honduras to have paperwork notarized since
legally she owned the property with me) and became an expat living in Honduras.
Eduardo finished 7th grade in Florida and moved to Honduras in June of 2015.
We are now all living together in Honduras and the children
are enrolled in school. Honduras is the murder capital of the world. Our city
of 200,000 had 450 murders last year. My children know what dead bodies look
like and know if I shout drop to get on the ground.
In August of 2015 we received notice from USCIS that they
denied our appeal. Our lawyer said this was strange as they never heard Olga’s
side of the story. When Olga was interviewed at the embassy in Honduras, they
never asked her about the human trafficking charge. The USCIS, when processing
the paper work after we won our appeal for the failure to appear charges, is
the agency that brought up these charges. Olga was denied due process because
she was not in the United States.
Our lawyer said we had two options, 1) Appeal to the Circuit
Court on the Due Process. This would be expensive and the embassy can choose to
ignore this. 2) See if we can get the Embassy in Honduras to listen to our
story. We chose option number two.
After many attempts to get an appointment at the US Embassy, I decided to get some help. In July of 2016, I stopped by my Congresswoman’s office
while I was in California. I requested their assistance on arranging an
appointment at the U.S. Embassy in Honduras. Their office listened to our
nightmare and agreed to help.
In August of 2016, they wrote to the embassy and the
embassy replied that we needed to take the case up with USCIS. They then wrote
to USCIS. USCIS decided that the case was so complex that they called the
Congresswoman’s office to explain that the case was closed. The Congresswoman’s
office then requested the embassy interview Olga since she was banned from
entering the country and not questioned on the charges. The embassy responded
that Olga was asked during her interview in October 2012 and admitted smuggling
a person into the country. What!!!!
I was at the interview at the U.S. Embassy on October 16,
2012 and we were never asked ANY questions about smuggling anyone. I have the
email from the embassy stating the reasons Olga was initially denied her Visa and that
was not listed. Why would someone from the embassy say this? I sent a copy of
the email to the Congresswoman’s office and the embassy was contacted again.
The response was, take it up with USCIS. USCIS has an office in El Salvador so
now I am trying to get an appointment there even though they say that the case is closed.
I would like to see if I can get a letter from the man
who crossed the border with Olga and have him state that she did not pay for
him to come to the U.S. and they were following instructions that the coyotes
gave them when they crossed into Texas.
The only reason my wife is out of this country is because we
came forward and tried to correct her status. If we never went to a lawyer we
would still be a family living together in our house in California living under
the radar waiting for immigration reform. My wife never received government aid
or healthcare. We paid for that ourselves like responsible citizens.
My wife is the bravest person I have met and I love her very
much. When we exchanged vows it was for better or worse till death do us part.
Since I am still breathing I will fight this ban.
“Never, never, never give up!” Winston Churchill
