Miguel Angel Lopez Luvian, 47, lived in the Livermore area for 29 years and worked as a welder and at a Livermore winery. He married a U.S. citizen in 2001 and previously held a green card that was later revoked. Lopez was detained on May 27 at a routine immigration appointment in San Francisco and was deported to Mexico City, where he has no family. His wife, Rosa Lopez, has visited him twice but faces financial strain from travel and their three-year-old grandchild can only see him by video. Congressman Eric Swalwell intervened publicly and a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order in early June.
A Livermore man who has lived in the Bay Area his entire adult life and raised three children here remains in Mexico, where he has no family, after being deported, while his wife and family here await his next immigration hearing. "He tells me, 'You've got to promise me you are not going to cry anymore,' but it's impossible," says Rosa Lopez, the wife of Miguel Angel Lopez Luvian, who was detained on May 27 at a routine immigration appointment in SF, and is now staying in Mexico City. Rosa Lopez spoke to KTVU this week, saying she has now been to visit her husband twice, but she can't easily afford the travel. And the couple has a three-year-old grandchild whom he can only interact with on video calls.
Rosa Lopez tells KTVU, "Getting status here in the United States is not as easy as filling out an application, like getting a job. It's not. It's all a process. We've spent a lot of money on this."
In contrast to many similar cases in which the Trump administration has directed the extralegal detention and deportation of immigrants who have lived here peacefully for years and attempted to gain citizenship through all legal channels, Lopez's case has gained wide attention here in the Bay Area, which may help in the end. Congressman Eric Swalwell posted a video to Instagram last week of a meeting he had with Rosa Lopez. "He's a friend, a neighbor, a Livermore resident, who was unlawfully removed by ICE after doing everything you're supposed to do," Swalwell said of Miguel Lopez. Swalwell reportedly helped to get Lopez's passport back from ICE, but there is no immediate change in his case.
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