Hector Reyes-Hidalgo goes into hiding to avoid deportation

Hector Reyes-Hidalgo has gone into hiding to avoid his deportation from Canada back to Chile.

Reyes-Hidalgo was scheduled to be deported on Saturday.

The Chilean man and his supporters have been campaigning to get him residency in Canada on humanitarian grounds so he can continue to look after his ailing mother, Julia Hidalgo-Aguillera.

Hidalgo-Aguillera is a Canadian citizen who suffers from ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

She has applied to sponsor her son, who had originally applied for refugee status when he first came to Canada four years ago.

His refugee claim was refused by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, and Canada Border Services Agency moved ahead with deportation orders.

In a news release issued early Monday morning, Reyes-Hidalgo’s supporters said going into hiding was his only choice.

“There is no one else available to take care of Julia if he is not here. He has been forced into hiding for choosing his mother’s well-being over his own, for acting like a good son is supposed to,” Noé Arteaga said in the news release.

The release quotes immigration rights lawyer, Mostafa Henaway, who called the deportation order “mindless bureaucracy and hard-nosed ideology.”

“It is utterly pointless and cruel to separate Julia from her son and leave her without a caregiver,” he said.

The news release was issued by Solidarity Without Borders, a Montreal-based group dedicated to migrant justice issues.

The group called on federal Immigration Minister Chris Alexander to respond to Reyes-Hidalgo’s humanitarian application.

In the meantime, supporters are pitching in to help with Hidalgo-Aguillera's care while her son is in hiding.