‘We should never separate a family’: Push to stop Montreal man’s deportation to Mexico

There’s a push to stay a deportation for a Mexican man in Montreal whose stepson is facing serious medical conditions and whose partner is expecting another child.

The lawyer for the family says Andres is the only source of income for the family and that he would be at risk of facing violence back home.

“The child’s biological dad was killed in front of him. So, of course, he has severe PTSD. [The child’s mother] does, too,” said Anne Cécile Khouri-Raphael, a refugee lawyer representing the man.

Andres is not the man’s real name. CTV News is protecting his identity for safety reasons.

While the man is deportable, she said the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) also needs to evaluate the best interest of the child, who has serious health issues.

“I’ve never seen a situation that tragic for a child. You know, every separation is tragic, but for kids whose dad has been assassinated in front of him, who has suffered a quasi form of cancer, who’s very sick, whose mom is struggling a lot, and whose mom is pregnant. You know, why?” said Khouri-Raphael.

A community advocate who works with the family said there has been a rise in these kinds of family separation deportations in recent years, adding that the courts should not be separating families in these kinds of situations.

“We should never separate a family,” said Maryse Poisson, the director of social intervention at the Welcome Collective.

“It is not normal that we need to work all night to file processes in court. These removals should just just not happen. We should have a policy to not have them happen,” said Maryse Poisson, the director of social intervention at the Welcome Collective, an organization that supports refugee claimants.

According to Poisson, the family patriarch was a former member of the Mexican military who conducted operations targeting drug traffickers and who saw his colleagues get killed by the cartels.

She added that he’s at serious risk of being killed if he’s sent back to his home country — a fact that the CBSA cannot overlook.

She said Andres has found work in Montreal and is supporting his family financially during the immigration process.

Khouri-Raphael filed a request in federal court Wednesday to stay the deportation ahead of Andres’ scheduled deportation on May 12.