Family Loses Bid To Stop Deportation
Posted June 28, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
They called Canada home for the last five years, growing accustomed to the climate, the people, and the way of life they learned to love. But on Tuesday the Lizano-Sossa family were reluctantly packing their bags after losing a battle to stay in the country.
They are being deported back to their native Costa Rica after failing to acquire the legal papers to remain in the country.
The family consists of two parents and three children, who will all be leaving despite the fact that one of the daughters was born in Canada and has a Canadian passport.
“She’s Canadian born, (but) I cannot leave her behind,” said Gerald Lizano.
“That is so terrible,” adds his teary eyed daughter Kimberly. “It’s devastating for my family. I am so worried now. I don’t know what to say.”
The family’s immigration lawyers are now making a desperate appeal.
“So the bar is now fully in Monte Solberg, the minister of immigration’s hands, whether he will do the right thing in the next two days to allow this family to stay, to be part of this society which they have become such an integral part of,” said immigration consultant MacDonald Scott.
Lizano claimed refugee status, insisting he’ll be killed by drug lords if he returns to his native country.
The case raised eyebrows in late April when immigration officials went into a local high school to pull out two children, after taking their mother and a sister into custody.
The family will have to leave Canada on Saturday while their lawyers continue to handle the appeal.
