A Beaverton family is grieving after the father, who was detained and deported by ICE, died. The family stated that he was hospitalized immediately after being deported, while they were still struggling to bring him home.
“They threw my dad out like an animal, and now I have no dad,” said Eric Martin San Juan.
Eric Martin San Juan stated that, after a long battle to bring his father, Paulino Martin San Pedro, to Beaverton after being imprisoned in November, he passed away. Martin San Pedro was detained in November, deported to Mexico within days, hospitalized, and died of pneumonia shortly after at the age of 53.
“The day my dad was taken, I felt like my dad had died, that’s how extreme it felt, and now that he has died,” said Martin San Juan. “No one deserves this, no one deserves to be tortured, no one deserves to be taken away from their families, not knowing you’ll ever see them again, and then truly never seeing them again.”
Martin San Juan believes his father’s health was precipitated by his detention and being detained in a place where he has not lived in over 30 years.
“I think if we fought it here, he would have had a better chance of being with his family, having me, having his day one support system versus going home to a place you haven’t been in 30 years,” said Martin San Juan. “I thoroughly blame ICE, I blame our government because there is a better way to do all of this besides shipping people away.”
He claimed that the immigration crackdown had permanently altered his family, causing them to lose the most important piece of their puzzle.
“They left a 20-year-old girl without a father going to school, they left two sons who just wanted to spend time with their dad, my children aren’t going to have a grandpa, my sister doesn’t have anyone to walk her down the aisle,” said Martin San Juan.
During Martin San Pedro’s illness in Mexico, his family faced growing expenses, including medical care and legal fees to fight for his repatriation. They now feel like they have failed.
“I’ve put myself in financial risk, my mother, my brother, and at the end of the day, it still wasn’t good enough,” said Martin San Juan. “These are the things that happen when your father is taken away, your mother, it doesn’t matter who it is, this is the reality.”
This week, the family traveled to Mexico to say their final goodbyes and send him out in the manner he deserved.
“He really built me up to be the best version of myself,” said Martin San Juan.
Back in Beaverton, Martin San Juan is looking at images of his father and says that, while he doesn’t understand why this happened, he knows his father trained him to be strong and lead their family through it.
“My dad always, I don’t know how he figured stuff out, but he always figured it out, and I think he left me with that gift, that no matter how hard anything is, I’m going to figure it out,” said Martin San Juan.
The family informs me they intend to organize a vigil in memory of Martin San Pedro in the coming weeks and have started a campaign to assist the family financially during this time. For more information, go here.
