New Jersey

New Jersey Grandfather Facing Deportation Allowed to Stay

A New Jersey grandfather has been reprieved from deportation. 

Catalino Guerrero, an undocumented immigrant, won't have to go back to Mexico after spending some two dozen years in the U.S. 

The official notice of a one-year extension was granted at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Newark. His wife Margarita, who was told for the first time to report there, was also allowed to stay. 

He hugged his children and grandchildren outside the building afterward.

His attorney Cesar Estela says the Guerreros had a quiet embrace when they learned the news.

"Now the real work gets started," Estela said, referring to the long process to get the two green cards. 

Last month, Guerrero had gone to the same building flanked by Sen. Robert Menendez and Cardinal Joseph Tobin to turn himself in, not knowing if he wouldd be deported. Supporters flanked him as he walked into the building.

His young granddaughter told News 4 in tears at the time, "He has a part in my life and if he goes away, that part of my life will break." 

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