Dear Community Members,  

All families face difficult times, but for those families who are undocumented in the United States the difficulties of life can take a turn that many of us could never imagine.  For the Esteban family, their journey to the US from Guatemala began fifteen years ago when Jaqueline Esteban who was at the time three years old fell into a pot of boiling water that was being prepared for her bath.  At the hospital in Guatemala City, the doctors could only give minimal treatment to Jaqueline, so they encouraged the Esteban family to travel to the United States to seek further treatment.  When the family found out about the Shriners hospital for Children in Sacramento, which specializes in in treatment of children with severe burns, Nora Gonzalez and Arnold Esteban, Jaqueline's mother and father took her to the Shriners hospital. 

Today fifteen years after coming to the United States, the Esteban family faces another trial as Arnold was detained by the Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Richmond on February of 2008 on his way to work as ICE was conducting a "fugitive" operation although Arnold was not the intended target of the raid.  Mr. Esteban was allowed to pay $5000 dollars in bail for his release, since he has no criminal record as he awaited his hearing with ICE.  Today ICE is threatening immediate deportation of Mr. Esteban who is the sole provider for Jaqueline and his four other children including their youngest son John David Esteban Gonzalez who is a US citizen.  Jaqueline's doctor David Greenhalgh has written to ICE asking that Mr. Esteban be allowed to stay in the United States if only for the treatment of his daughter which would not be possible without his support.  As he has indicated Jaqueline requires an immediate skin graft surgery and continued treatment in the near future for her to have a "normal, functioning life."  For this reason the community of faith is calling on ICE to honor the prosecutorial discretion statement the Department of Homeland Security and its Director John Morton announced last summer for immigrants like Arnold Esteban who face extraordinary circumstances and who have children who are US citizens.

As communities of faith we call for justice and the rights of immigrants and children to be put at the forefront of our calls for equal rights for all people.  We believe that families should not be torn apart especially when a child is being treated with major problems in the hospital.  Further as it states in the Bible in Leviticus 19:32-34 "If a stranger lives with you in your land, do not molest him. You must count him as one of your own countrymen and love him as yourself."  We call on all people of faith and conscience to call supervising officer Katy Szeto at the ICE office in San Francisco to ask that ICE use prosecutorial discretion to allow Mr. Esteban to stay in the United States to provide for Jaqueline and the rest of his family. 

Contact Katy Szeto

ICE San Francisco

Supervising Officer

415-844-5809