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Mother of Georgia boy battling kidney cancer barred from U.S.

Cecilia Gonzalez entered the U.S. illegally 18 years ago but left upon threats of a crackdown on immigration under the Trump administration.

ATLANTA — At least three times a day, 5-year-old Ashton tells his mom he loves her through a screen.

They have been separated for nearly a year.

"It is a stress living," Cecilia Gonzalez said. "It's not a life to me but we try to just be positive."

For 18 years, she lived in the U.S. illegally. In January, she left the country overwhelmed with fear of deportation, leaving her husband of 11 years and her son.

"She got to where she just stopped driving because she didn't want to get pulled over," her husband said. "Sometimes, she wouldn't even want to take Ashton to the park because she was afraid she would be racially profiled."

"I was a little bit scary after I was on his priority," she said. "After he changed his priorities - the president, I'm talking about."

When President Trump took office, he put every noncitizen at risk of deportation, changing the Obama administration's focus on those who committed serious crimes.

USA TODAY reports that change in policy has had more and more undocumented immigrants voluntarily choosing to leave the country rather than face detention of deportation.

"To us, we make right decision even if it is hard and I know a lot of people won't do this but we did what we supposed to," she said.

Seven months later, the unthinkable happened. During a visit to Mexico, doctors found a tumor protruding from Ashton's abdomen.

"They said, 'It's a tumor,' and they knew what it was and it had gotten to the size of a large cantaloupe," she said.

He was flown back to Georgia where doctors at Scottish Rite diagnosed him with a stage three kidney cancer called Wilms. He needed his mom now more than ever.

"Giving blood is the worst part for him," his father said. "He screams bloody murder. It's hard to have to deal with that anyway and not having the support of my wife is even harder."

"I know he needs me and I really feel very sad for us not to be there with him," Gonzalez said. "It's not easy. It's not been easy."

"It's hard," his dad said as he wiped away tears.

He tells his son that they're doing everything they can to bring his mother home but that the government doesn't want her there.

But that has not stopped Gonzalez's husband from fighting to bring her home by tweeting the president, starting a GoFundMe campaign and filing for humanitarian parole.

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"Humanitarian parole is an extreme measure that one can ask for in circumstances where there is an urgent humanitarian need to travel back to the United States," Attorney Barbara Vazquez said.

Gonzalez had been in the country illegally twice forcing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deny the request, writing, in part, "the totality of the equities, in this case, does not warrant a favorable exercise of ICE's discretionary parole authority. Accordingly, your request is denied."

"I did everything right. I never had any troubles in America and after they denied us everything, I just can't believe they didn't consider our situation," Gonzalez said. "My son's situation."

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"This is one of the toughest cases that I've had to deal with in a long time," Vazquez said. "I just cannot imagine the desperation and agony of a mother who is thousands of miles away from her 5-year-old U.S. citizen son undergoing chemo and radiation. I mean, it's agonizing."

Still, Gonzalez and her family are not giving up.

"My goal is to get the law changed to make it easier for American citizens who are married to illegal immigrants and especially if they have children to at least have a better chance cause it affects us as American citizens," she said. "Our laws don't take us into consideration."

If nothing changes, Cecilia will be barred from the United States for at least 20 years making for more long-distance good nights to her son.

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