Joelle Fredman
WMAL.com
VIRGINIA — (WMAL) The Virginia organizer of an undocumented immigrant rights group is being deported to Spain this week after a drunk driving arrest led authorities to discover that she was undocumented.
Wendy Uruchi Contreras, 33, has been detained since she pleaded guilty to a DUI in July. She is now being forced out of the country, leaving her husband, and two children, 13 and 7, behind in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Uruchi came to the U.S. in 2002 under the visa waiver program, which allows immigrants to stay in the county for 90 days without a visa. She decided to stay after three months.
She began working with the activist group CASA in 2013, which helps immigrants fight their undocumented statuses.
While Uruchi tried to use her dedication to her community in her appeal, under the Obama administration an illegal immigrant charged with a DUI must be deported.
The communications director for the organization told The Washington Post that Uruchi’s deportation was a severe loss for CASA.
“Wendy’s situation illustrates our failure as a country in not creating an immigration system based on family unity and the best interests of children,” she said.
Copyright 2017 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (photo: CASA)
