An undocumented Mexican immigrant who faces deportation will be in the gallery Tuesday night when U.S. President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress.
Gabino Sanchez, a resident of Ridgeland, South Carolina, is attending as a guest of Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), a leader in the push for comprehensive immigration reform.
The 27-year-old Sanchez is the father of two U.S.-born children and hopes to win a reprieve from deportation under the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
“I’m worried they will deport me and separate me from my wife and my children, and that also worries my family. I want to settle my immigration problem so we no longer have to live in fear,” Sanchez told Efe.
The DACA program is open to undocumented migrants 30 and under who were brought to the United States before the age of 16.
Gabino Sanchez was 15 when he entered the United States, Gutierrez’s office said in a statement.
Sanchez and others in the same situation will pay close attention to Obama’s speech “in search of signs of hope for their families,” the congressman told Efe.
Gutierrez met Sanchez in November 2011 and pledged to help the migrant in his battle against deportation.
