Couple facing deportation to Colombia have 3 daughters in Hamilton, including 1 with disabilities

The family was jolted awake by loud banging at the front door.

Andrea Pardo Rodriguez, her husband Nelson Martinez Mora and their daughters emerged from their bedrooms Sunday morning, still in their pyjamas, and opened the door.

The couple and Valentina, 22, Camila, 26, and Jesica Martinez Pardo, 27, were shocked to see six people, dressed in plain clothes, in the hallway of their Hamilton apartment, Valentina later told CBC Hamilton in Spanish.

Pardo Rodriguez, 45, and Martinez Mora, 48, have been in Canada since 2021 as refugee claimants. 

The six people, who the family assumed were agents with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), were let in and asked for the parents, said Jesica.

None of the six spoke Spanish and the Colombian family speaks little English. 

According to the daughters, none of the people they believed were CBSA officers presented identification; they used a cellphone to translate the message that their parents were being detained. The daughters also asked if Camila, who is blind and has an intellectual disability, could go with her parents, but they were told no. 

The couple was allowed to change into regular clothes before they were put in handcuffs, the daughters said. They said they were given a small slip of paper with the address of the Immigration Holding Centre in Toronto, and then watched, tears streaming down their faces, as their parents were taken away.

"It's hard for me seeing my parents in that situation... We came here with the hope of being together," Valentina said two days later. "Seeing my sister [Camila] really breaks my heart, because I don't think we're bad people. We're here looking for our well-being and leave behind all these problems."

Camila is attached to her mother, Valentina said. Their cousin, Lianis Solangie Poveda Mora, who lives in the same building, recounted how Jesica, the eldest daughter, came to her soon after, crying and telling her their parents had been taken.  

"Camila was uncontrollable. We didn't know what to do. She couldn't stop crying because she depends on her mom and dad for everything she does," Poveda Mora said in Spanish. "Her mom is the one who serves her food, cools it down for her, walks with her by the hand, everything. Her mom is her shadow."

Parents feared for their lives in Colombia: docs

In Bogota, Pardo Rodriguez was a leader with Iurazoli, a non-profit organization that helps people living with disabilities, said a letter written by the group's legal representative in 2021 and included in the documents filed as part of her refugee claim.

In the role, Pardo Rodriguez became well known in the local human rights community and for raising awareness about the discrimination faced by people with disabilities, the letter said.

The paramilitary group Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC) targeted Iurazoli, leaving threatening messages on social media. 

AGC also called Pardo Rodriguez's work and personal phones, and threatened to kill her, according to a crime report she filed with Colombia's Officer of the Attorney General in 2020. The report was shared with CBC Hamilton.

"They say death to all fake social leaders and those who make themselves believe they are human rights defenders," the report said. 

Human Rights Watch described the AGC as continuing to commit "serious humanitarian rights abuses including killings, disappearances and rape." 

Across Colombia, more than 500 human rights defenders were killed between 2016 and 2021, Human Rights Watch reported.

'They had a story that just broke my heart'

Fearing for the family's safety, Pardo Rodriguez and Martinez Mora fled to Canada with the hopes their absence would make life safer for their daughters.   

Cynthia Belaskie, managing director of McMaster University's Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative, got to know the couple about a year ago when she hired them to do repairs and cleaning around her house. 

"They had a story that just broke my heart," Belaskie told CBC Hamilton. "They thought, if they leave, the girls would be safer without a big target on their backs." 

Belaskie said she has supported the couple through the asylum process and questioned whether their case suffered from an "overwhelmed" immigration system. 

The family's lawyer, Victoria Bruyn, said she was unable to comment on the case without the consent of her clients.

Daughters joined the family in Canada

While waiting for a decision from the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB), Rodriguez and Mora's daughters decided to join them in Canada in hopes of remaining there. 

Valentina said the threats didn't stop when their parents left Colombia. 

"This whole time, they've tried to follow us, stalk us, call us, even show up at the house where we used to live." 

The three sisters spent two weeks travelling to join their parents — by plane to Mexico, via train and by private vehicles across the U.S. border, and finally into Canada through an irregular crossing in Quebec. They arrived in Hamilton just before Christmas 2022, and have started their own refugee claim that's separate from their parents. 

In January, Pardo Rodriguez and Martinez Mora learned their refugee application was rejected by the IRB. 

The panel's written decision said there were discrepancies between the documents submitted and Pardo Rodriguez's testimony, concluding she and her husband had failed to establish they would be persecuted if they returned to Colombia.

Before their arrest Sunday, Pardo Rodriguez and Martinez Mora were under the impression their lawyer had submitted an application for refugee status on humanitarian and compassionate grounds and that a deportation date had been deferred, Belaskie said. 

However, at a hearing Tuesday, the pair were denied bond and told they would be deported within days, on March 26, Belaskie noted. 

The CBSA doesn't comment on individual cases, said spokesperson Rebecca Purdy. She said generally speaking, the agency has a legal obligation to deport foreign nationals who have a removal order in force. 

"The decision to remove someone from Canada is not taken lightly," Purdy said. 

Once a person's humanitarian and compassionate grounds application is submitted, an immigration officer must also grant "Stage 1 approval"  to put deportation on hold, said Purdy. 

For their daughters, their only current option to see their parents is at the detention centre near Toronto's Pearson International Airport. 

They visited them Sunday night, hours after their arrest, talking to them through telephones, separated by a glass partition. 

"We don't even get to hug them, and Camila, who needs a hug from her mom, can't get one," said Poveda Mora, the cousin.