Missouri Couple Relies on Faith Through Immigration Process

Alejandro Roque walked out of the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, with tears streaming down his face. His application for residency in the United States had been denied. He clutched the tattered Bible – burnt on one end from melted candle wax – that he took to all his immigration meetings. He tried to be strong, tried to be hopeful and tried to trust that God would provide.

He dreaded delivering the news to his wife, Destinie Roque, a U.S. citizen who remained alone in the United States as she worked her way through college and saved money for Alejandro’s application. She called him nearly every night crying. She told him she missed him, asked when he would come home.

“I wasn’t there to protect her, and I was worried that she wouldn’t eat,” Alejandro said. “There wasn’t much money. I couldn’t do anything for her.”

Alejandro, 27, had taken a gamble by returning to Mexico after entering the United States illegally in 2005 when he was 18 years old. When he married Destinie, 23, in July 2010, he became eligible for a green card, and four months after his marriage, he began the process of becoming a legal citizen.

Alejandro filed the application’s paperwork in the United States, but he had to return to Mexico in February 2012 to submit his application. If officials never approved him, Alejandro would have no legal way of returning to the United States, and Destinie would have been forced to move to Mexico.

Alejandro’s situation isn’t uncommon. Many undocumented immigrants who return to their homelands to apply for residency in the United States face multiple setbacks and delays.

It would be six months and $6,000 dollars more before Alejandro could step foot on U.S. soil as a legal resident in August 2012 – nearly two years after he started his application.

“I wanted to be legal since the first day I came here,” he said. “That’s the dream for anyone who comes here.”

More than 90 percent of Hispanic immigrants said they would like to become U.S. citizens, according to a 2013 survey by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. More than half of the 11.7 million undocumented immigrants living in the country were born in Mexico, according to the survey. For many Mexicans, including Alejandro and his family, immigrating to the United States is a chance to escape escalating crime and low wages in their homeland.

Alejandro’s parents immigrated to the United States illegally to find work when he was 14 years old. They sent him money for school, but Alejandro used the money for drugs and alcohol instead. In 2005, his parents told him if he wasn’t going to make a life for himself in Mexico, he should come to the United States and work.

That’s when Alejandro started the dangerous two-day trek north from his hometown in Acapulco, Mexico, to the border of Arizona where his parents paid $1,800 for a coyote to smuggle him into the United States.

Alejandro hiked across the desert with a group of 20 immigrants for three hours on a starless night when the moon was hidden behind a blanket of clouds. With every step he prayed that he wouldn’t feel the sharp fangs of a rattlesnake sinking into his flesh. When he heard the steady hum of engines from mosquito planes patrolling the border for immigrants, he dove into the bushes, looking down at the ground as the coyote instructed so the pilots wouldn’t see the light reflected in his eyes.

On the last leg of his journey, he crawled through a cotton field in Yuma, Arizona, to the highway where a van was waiting to transport him to the one-bedroom house he shared with the other immigrants for $50 a night. His parents paid another $500 so he could ride in a van to Missouri – where they had made a home for themselves in the southwestern city of Joplin.

Four years later, Alejandro met Destinie at church, and as the relationship progressed, she took the lead in helping him become a legal resident.

“When I found out he was illegal, it didn’t put a damper on our relationship,” Destinie said. “I started studying and figuring out how we could make our life together and do it the right way.”

While the couple was open about their situation with a select few, they kept Alejandro’s illegal status a secret from many.

“We let people assume whatever they wanted,” Destinie said. “We didn’t want people to believe he just married me for the papers, and I didn’t want people to look down upon me.”

Even Destinie’s parents and closest friends were kept in the dark.

“She told me Alejandro had a different past growing up, but I didn’t want to push the issue and make her tell me something she didn’t want to,” said longtime friend Kendra Williams. “Growing up, a lot of my friends were illegal, so I knew that could be a sore subject. It didn’t matter to me either way because I knew he was a good person for her.”

The couple met with an immigration lawyer for a free consultation, but they decided to pursue the application process on their own.

“It’s not an easy process,” Destinie said. “It’s not something anyone can do and do well. I made mistakes along the way, and it cost us money.”

While finishing her undergraduate degree in education, Destinie spent hours poring over immigration documents while maintaining a 4.0 GPA. Sometimes, Alejandro would sleep on an air mattress next to Destinie in the living room so he could be near her while she worked into the wee hours of the morning.

A crucial step in the application process was documenting the hardship it would cause if Alejandro was denied residency. In a letter to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency, Destinie stressed the dangers of living in Mexico, in addition to the lack of educational and career opportunities.

Alejandro’s absence created financial difficulties as well. Destinie was unable to work full time while in school and was forced to live off her savings. She accumulated $350 of debt every month Alejandro was away, according to her letter.

Finally, the couple had to create sympathy.

“Please consider the life of my wife and the dreams that she has to be the best school teacher, the best wife and the best mom in the world,” Alejandro wrote in a letter to the USCIS. “Our life together has just barely started, and I want to make her dreams come true. I ask you to help me fulfill her dreams by letting me go back home to her.”

Yet the government rejected Alejandro’s first application because he applied as his own financial sponsor, which meant he could financially support himself with income from his current job. However, the government didn’t accept the income he earned while working illegally.

That forced the couple to find a third-party individual who would accept financial responsibility for Alejandro until he could become a citizen. The answer came in Alejandro’s pastor, Arturo Nunez.

“I know him, and I trust him,” Nunez said. “He’s an honest man, and he is very responsible.”

Now more than two years after he was granted residency, Alejandro is preparing for his next obstacle: passing the U.S. citizenship test. Though he is required to be a resident for three years before he can become a citizen, the couple has already started saving and studying for the $800 test.

In the evenings, when Destinie comes home from teaching Spanish at Neosho High School, and Alejandro gets off work at Service Recycling in Joplin, the couple sits around the table with history books open for some light studying.

As the couple plans for the next step in Alejandro’s journey to citizenship, they continue to rely on God for hope and encouragement.

“By the hand of God he was approved,” Destinie said. “It wasn’t luck. We were just very blessed. We both have a strong faith, and we believe that had a huge part.”