Immigration agency approves waiver that means Yeadon mom, stranded in Mexico for two years, may be heading home soon

Finally, after spending nearly two years in Mexico away from her husband and five children in Yeadon, Karen Serrano Roberts may be coming home soon.

Her husband, LaMar Roberts, recently got word that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services approved a special waiver, the I-601A waiver, that could allow Karen to apply for a green card here in the United States.

The waiver is intended to help undocumented residents who are relatives of U.S. citizens become documented without leaving the country.

“When we first got the news, we were excited and happy,” LaMar said Sunday. “It was like my mind couldn’t comprehend it, and it just feels unreal.”

Now, anxiety is beginning to set in, he said, even though he had his bag packed to fly to Mexico at 10 a.m. Monday. He will accompany Karen to the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juárez for her appointment this week.

“I don’t want to get down there and have something else to worry about,” he said.

Thomas M. Griffin, the new immigration attorney LaMar hired after his wife had gotten bad advice from a different lawyer, gave LaMar the good news.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a case where there are five children separated from their mother.”

Griffin said it may take a few days before Karen is able to return home.

In addition to updating paperwork with the consulate office, she must pass a medical exam and then wait for USCIS to return her passport stamped with a visa.

“She’ll be entering on an ‘immigrant visa,’ " Griffin wrote in an email. “That’s a travel document that means she is being admitted with the intent to remain permanently. When she settles back home, USCIS will mail her a green card — the commonly recognizable way to show she is a lawful permanent resident.”

Karen Roberts, who turned 32 in February, was 30 when she first traveled to the consulate office in Mexico to apply for a visa to enter the U.S. lawfully on July 26, 2021 . She had been told by her legal counsel at the time that the process would take four days.

Her father, who lives in California, met her in Mexico. She recalled him telling her he didn’t think it was a good idea.

Instead, because Karen had been brought into the U.S. at age four without legal documents, Karen and her family were shocked to learn that she was barred from re-entering the country for 10 years because that first lawyer sent her to Mexico without first applying for and receiving the all important I-601a waiver.

At the time, her husband Lamar was worrying about how he would care for their five children, who were then ages 15, 14, 11, 8 and 5.

Reached briefly in Mexico Sunday, Karen said she is excited. In February, she said her strong faith in God has kept her hopeful.

“I was ready for it,” she said Sunday, about learning her waiver was approved. She is expecting a new baby in June.

Griffinwho took on the case in December 2021 said the waiver was granted based on the agency accepting that LaMar was enduring an “extreme hardship” without his wife.

During the Clinton Administration, intense anti-immigration rhetoric influenced Clinton to enact a penalty for people with an “unlawful presence” in the United States, Griffin said.

They were supposed to leave the country and come in legally through a U.S. Consulate office. But if they left the country to apply for a legal visa, the penalty for having been in the U.S. unlawfully was to be barred from re-entering for 10 years. The policy was so drastic that people rarely used it to obtain a green card, Griffin said.

Later, during the Obama Administration, the I-601a waiver was enacted to permit relatives of U.S. citizens to apply for a green card while remaining here with their families.

» READ MORE: Yeadon mom of five is stuck in Mexico in immigration limbo

Griffin said he doesn’t know what led the USCIS to grant the waiver for Karen, whether her request to expedite the waiver had simply gone through bureaucratic channels, or whether “it was the Inquirer’s story, a 6ABC news report, or a push from Sen. Bob Casey’s office.”

He noted that one of the emails he received had been sent to Casey’s office also.

Griffin was happy the Roberts case has advanced to this point, but said it’s not yet time to throw a party until all the hurdles are completed.

“This was a very special hardship case,” Griffin said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a case where there are five children separated from their mother. And this was a woman who was 100% American since she came here as a child.”