MONTREAL - Local human rights advocates are crying foul after a Mexican woman denied refugee status was ordered to leave the country without the right to take her Canadian-born baby.
Ivonne Hernandez, 41, arrived in Montreal in 2009 and filed to remain as a refugee based on her claim that she was abused by a police officer in her hometown of Mexico City.
She was given partial custody of her child after a split with her husband, against whom she made a claim of domestic abuse after their split.
Hernandez's refugee claim was refused and she now faces deportation on February 7. She cannot bring her baby at that time because she remains embroiled in an unresolved custody dispute with the baby's father.
Hernandez's next custody hearing is March 6, long after she is supposed to have left.
So her lawyer is going to court to get the deportation put on hold.
“Normally these types of cases are supposed to take place in the country where both parents have been living with the baby so if they dump her in Mexico she has no rights to her baby and she may never see the baby again,” said her lawyer Stewart Istvanffy.
Hernandez, naturally, is pleading to remain with her child.
“I’m not addict, I’m not alcoholic, I’m not prostitute, I’m not bad person, the only thing, my sin is don't have papers,” said Hernandez.
Her case returns to court Tuesday when Istvanffy presents a motion to delay her deportation.
“A lot of these wild deportations that don’t respect rights and separate parents and children happen under the radar. In this case I believe she will probably stay eventually but there’s a real problem in the deportation process in this country,” said Istvanffy.
