Houston man faces deportation, prepares to file federal injunction

HOUSTON, Texas (FOX 26) - Monday morning FIEL and Juan Rodriguez's lawyers will meet at the federal courthouse to file a federal injunction they say in hopes of keeping him here in the United States.

"I will fight for them, and I will fight so that my dad gets to stay," says Juan's daughter Karen.

Rodriguez moved to the United States about 15 years ago and has since worked as a mechanic, obtaining a work visa every year to stay. This year his visa came in the mail about two weeks after he got notice he would be deported.

The family are 7th Day Adventists and they say it would be against their faith to be separated.

"He says that he is broken and really sad but that he has hope that God will touch the hearts of the officers and judge and that they will have a change in mind," says Karen translating for her father.

Over the years Karen, her two sisters and their mother have become U.S. citizens but her dad could never quite get the right legal help to make the transition.

Karen says, "When you come to a different country, you trust people, you trust lawyers thinking that they are going to give you the best advice and sometimes they just take your money and that's what happened to us."

The 18-year-old just graduated from high school and with an acceptance letter from Texas Tech University, had plans to go to college. Now she is planning to go to El Salvador with her dad and family, if he gets deported.

She says, "He is our family, he is our supporter, he is the one that leads us, he is the head of the family and we can't stay here having a big part of us missing."

Juan Rodriguez says he plans to turn himself into ICE agents on June 29, if the injunction does not go his way.