CHARLOTTE — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested more than 200 people in multiple operations last week across North Carolina, including the father of a St. Joseph College Seminary student.
About 60 of the detainees, including the father of seminarian José Palma, have no criminal records, ICE acknowledged in an announcement Feb. 8.
Palma’s father Francisco Palma was arrested in Asheboro while ICE agents were looking for another person. The 48-year-old father of six came to the U.S. from Mexico 22 years ago to seek a better life for his family – especially medical help for a daughter with speech and hearing problems. He worked on farms and later in construction to provide for his family. And now besides having a son in the college seminary, one of his daughters has entered a religious order in Gastonia.
Francisco Palma was released Feb. 12 and allowed to return home after his family posted a $5,000 bond, but he must attend an immigration hearing and remains at risk for deportation. The family is working with immigration attorneys on his case.
Palma said his family was shocked by the arrest and the subsequent rapid transfer of his father to a federal detention center in Atlanta.
“I understand that my father, to come here, broke a law. I also broke it, although I was too young to know that I was also breaking a law,” Palma acknowledges. “But I feel it is an injustice because my father did not come to harm this country, he came to do good things. He is a good man who has given me a great example, and to imagine him today in prison for seeking a better life breaks my heart.”
Despite living and working in the U.S. for more than two decades, immigration law prevented Palma’s father from obtaining legal status without first having to return to Mexico. His entry without authorization made him ineligible for any regularization benefit.
Palma said he understands the impact and seriousness of the law, but he also expresses hope that the U.S. would be merciful to foreigners as the Bible commands – especially well-meaning foreigners who help support their local communities.
“I understand that the country cannot accept everyone, and the example of some bad guys has damaged the image of an entire community that seeks to do good,” he said. “We cannot demand if we do not contribute.”
If his father is deported, Palma said, his family will be split up as his mother, who is inconsolable, would follow her husband back to Mexico. Palma himself was a DACA beneficiary and now has a religious visa to stay in the country.
In spite of everything, Palma remains firm in his vocation and asks for people to pray for his family at this difficult time.
“As far as I can discern at this moment, God wants me to be in the seminary and I cannot leave my vocation. If God uses this to purify my family, I accept it,” he said. “Although I am angry, sad and upset about many things, I trust that God will solve everything according to His plans. God never gives suffering without getting something good because in the same way, He redeemed us all. And as Christians we are called to be like Jesus.”
— César Hurtado, Hispanic reporter