Another heart warming story from ICE
BREAKING🚨 ICE just took the grandparents who adopted three American boys after their mom died of breast cancer. TSA tipped them off at the airport gate.
Roberto and Lola Avalos were walking off a flight home from a family reunion in California when ICE agents met them at the gate in Birmingham, Alabama. Both had work permits. Both worked at a local Chick-fil-A. Neither has a criminal record.
Their daughter Karina was fighting breast cancer when they came from Mexico in 2015 to help. She died in 2017. They adopted her three young boys, the oldest barely a teenager, and raised them in Pelham.
Those boys are Marvin, Orlando and Acxel. Marvin is 22 now. When he turned 18 he sponsored his grandparents for green cards, and those petitions have been sitting with the government ever since. Orlando was named Gatorade Alabama Boys Soccer Player of the Year in June. Their grandfather, a former pro in Mexico, was the one who coached them.
ICE didn't have to look for them. Reuters says the tip came from TSA, which now runs passenger lists against ICE databases. TSA has handed ICE records on more than 31,000 travelers, and more than 1,200 people have been arrested off those tips.
"You see all this stuff in the news about families being separated," Marvin said, "but you never really think that you're going to experience it firsthand."
The 15-year-old "hasn't come out of his room." The 16-year-old is "more angry than anything."
Lola was granted bond on Friday and is expected home Monday. Roberto is still in ICE custody.
ICE's statement to a Birmingham TV station: "Both illegal aliens entered the U.S. legally but refused to depart on required dates, violating our nation's laws."
ICE failed to mention the truth: they came to America while their daughter battled cancer, adopted her three sons after she died, raised them for years, and had Green Card applications still pending when they were arrested.