Thread by @lomikriel

On Monday, after more than a decade of trying to gain a legal status, having been detained twice by ICE, & spending years as a deportee in El Salvador, Houston father Jose Escobar is finally home -- for good. @MarieDennise and I have followed his journey.
houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…

In many ways he has spanned the arc of recent immigration enforcement. Jose came here as a teen & had a protected status he lost in a paperwork error made by his mom. Lawyers gave him bad advice and told him not to show up to his court hearing in 2006. He was ordered deported.

.@ICEgov detained him in 2011. But through his wife's 'pit bull' advocacy & changes under Obama, he was released on an order of supervision, allowing him to stay if he complied. He had no criminal record & was married to an American.
tinyurl.com/y4t842aw @_SusanCarroll

The family thought their nightmare was over. They eased back into life, had baby Carmen. Jose built up his business.
Then, in 2017, at a routine immigration appointment, federal agents handcuffed him and told him he was going to El Salvador.
houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…

His wife, Rose, sprang into gear once again but he was deported within days to a country he hadn't seen since he was 13 and with only $20 in his pocket.
houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…

We went to El Salvador, where Jose was living like a prisoner in an elderly aunt's faded house in a gang-plagued port town bordering Honduras. He was trying to parent through Facebook and battled a deep depression.
houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…

In Houston, Rose also struggled. Financially, she couldn't make it without him, & she was having to keep everything together alone. Jose told her maybe she should move on. "If I had never talked to you that day, maybe you'd be happy with another man."
houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…

Two years passed. Rose went to Washington. She lobbied Congress. @RepAlGreen and @JacksonLeeTX18 tried to help. So did @FIELHouston abd @raedgonzalez

But months turned into years. Kid graduations went by. Friends told her, gently, that perhaps it was time to forget. She said no

Jose didn't give up either, even though he sometimes veered close.
(Q: Why could the husband of an American citizen not just "do it the right way?"
A; houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…)

Today, Jose is finally home for good. He's on his path to citizenship. But it could all have been avoided, his attorney said.

“They destroyed this family’s life. This wasn’t necessary.”

@MarieDennise and I don't often cover stories with happy endings.

houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…