Still waiting

Marisol Soto remains in a detention center in San Diego.

On Friday, a judge denied her request to return to Pea Ridge. The graduate of Pea Ridge High School had until Wednesday, April 9, to get a letter from a U.S. representative, according to her mother, Andrea Caldera Vazquez. Valzquez said there is a petition being circulated to persuade a public official to speak for Marisol.

Vazquez said Monday that Marisol, a 2011 graduate from Pea Ridge High School, is depressed and losing weight.

"It's bad," she said, crying. She said she has attempted to contact U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor (D.-Ark.) but has not been successful.

Marisol was 7 when she moved to Pea Ridge with her parents, Martin Soto and Andrew Valdera Vazquez, and younger sister, Mariana Soto.

She returned to Mexico believing she could not attend a college in the United States. In Mexico she faced persecution and discrimination because of her American roots. She joined Latinos En Accion (Latinos in Action) in a demonstration known as "Bring them Home-Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas." She and 150 other Latinos and Latinas willfully turned themselves in at a detainment facility in San Diego, Calif.

She has been in the detention center since March 10.

Vazquez said her husband was one of 14 children and the family did not have the extra money to help him continue his education. She said they came to America to seek a better life for their children and followed her brother to northwest Arkansas. She said her brother received his American citizenship through the 1996 amnesty offered to undocumented aliens.

"It's very poor, very high crime there," Vazquez said through an interpreter, referring to their ancestral home in Mexico.

She said Marisol has received three letters, but the letters the family have sent have been returned. She said she doesn't know which letters are received or returned. She has spoken with Marisol by telephone.

According to Mariana, Marisol's sister: "Marisol just called and she's in depression crises; she was crying uncontrollably and she's scared because they're denying everyone's petition and deporting them."

She said a judge gave them until 1 p.m. Wednesday to get a letter. Marisol's case will be reviewed by a judge at the San Diego field office at that time.