Serious Illness Complicates Deportation Case
January 2012 The Sacramento Bee
The digital counter ticked down the remaining minutes of Ignacio Mesa Viera’s dialysis treatment.
0:03, it read – three minutes to go.
For all he knew, that treatment on a recent Wednesday could have been his last. He expected the U.S. government to deport him to his birth country, Mexico, the next day.
“They don’t understand,” said the 50-year-old former tractor driver. “They are playing with my life.”
Mesa, who has been diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure, depends on dialysis treatments three times a week to survive. His case demonstrates the complex web of immigration policy, international relations, humanitarian needs and family ties that emerges when the United States wants to deport someone with a life-threatening health condition.
