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- Ane said the final green card application takes six months to process and her last immigration hearing is scheduled for December 23rd.
A South Florida mother is racing against the deportation clock after receiving a letter saying she must return to her native Brazil after living for over a decade and a half in the United States.
During a recent hearing, Ane Maschiach was given paperwork saying she must return by February or she will be arrested – saying she knew it was wrong to come illegally 16 years ago, but is now just one step away from getting her green card that would allow her to stay with her husband and children.
"I haven't even told my daughter because she's 8, so the little one, he doesn't really understand yet. He will know when I'm not here, but I can't tell my daughter," Maschiach told NBC affilette WPTV from her Boca Raton home.
Maschiach, who is in school to become a nurse, told the station she has been working as a hairdresser and paying taxes while starting her family and going through immigration hearings for five years.
"They're basically destroying a good family," said her husband, Shai. "How can I sit with my daughter and tell her that her mother is not going to be here anymore?”
Ane said the final green card application takes six months to process and her last immigration hearing is scheduled for two days before Christmas.
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"I have to come with my [Brazilian] passport and a [plane] ticket proving that I will be leaving the country in February,” she said. “I didn't kill anyone. I'm an immigrant, I believe the world has been doing that forever.”
