An Oakland nurse who was deported to Mexico last year was reunited with her family in the Bay Area on Saturday.
Maria Mendoza-Sanchez arrived at San Francisco International Airport just in time to spend the holidays with her family.
“There were many nights I couldn’t sleep,” she recalled. ” There were many days I was ready to give up.”
Mendoza-Sanchez came to the U.S. illegally in the mid-90s and went to college.
She worked at Highland Hospital as an oncology nurse until she and her husband were deported to Mexico in 2017 amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
She was forced to leave her four children and job behind.
Mendoza-Sanchez said, “This is really a dream that I never expected was going to come true.”
After 16 long months, U.S. immigration officials approved a waiver allowing her to receive an H-1B visa and return to the U.S. legally.
She made it back just in time for Christmas but her husband is still in Mexico.
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