Sometimes the bureaucrats charged with enforcing the shrouded rules that set the immigration game get things right, especially when faced with a public furious with the human consequences of the erratic enforcement of those rules.
It happened on Monday.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada stayed–for two years–the deportation of a Mexican woman who arrived in Canada nine years ago and was in the process of building a life and raising two Canadian-born daughters in Montreal.
The ruling came five days before Sheila Sedinger Ayala’s scheduled “removal” from Canada, the day one of her daughters was to turn six.
It also came one day after an immigrant rights group hosted a news conference for Ms. Sedinger Ayala on Sunday following a series of stories in the media about her and the possible forced abandonment of her children.
Ms. Sedinger Ayala moved to Montreal from Mexico City in 2005, fleeing a violent ex-boyfriend. She had one child within a year of arriving in Canada – a product of gang rape while in Mexico.
She later met and married a man in Montreal with whom she had another child. Her husband sponsored her bid for permanent residency and in 2008, the federal and provincial governments accepted her sponsorship application.
However, her husband was found guilty of physical assault during the course of Ms. Sedinger Ayala’s sponsorship application. That made him ineligible to sponsor her. The conviction cancelled her permanent residency bid.
Ms. Sedinger Ayala was told in May she was going to be deported after being assured by Immigration Canada that everything would be okay.
It didn’t quite turn out that way for Ms. Sedinger Ayala, who is no longer with her husband and is involved in a new relationship.
Until Monday.
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