Pillar Of The Hawaiian Coffee Industry Deported To Mexico

Andres Magana Ortiz, an entrepreneur, father of three, and a pillar of the Hawaiian coffee farming community, was denied his last request to be allowed to stay in the U.S. with his family and was deported to Mexico on Friday, June 7.

According to NBC News, the 43-year-old Ortiz was smuggled to the U.S. when he was 15 years old to join his mother. During his 28 years in America, Ortiz founded the El Molinito coffee farm in the Kona region of Hawaii, and his fellow farmers describe him as a pillar of the community. In addition to owning his own farm, Ortiz manages 15 other farms in the area. Ortiz's wife and three children are all U.S. citizens, and Ortiz had reportedly been trying to get citizenship for himself for nearly three decades.

The Obama administration had previously given Ortiz permission to stay as long as he did not break the law, but in March Donald Trump's Department of Homeland Security ordered him to be deported as part of a crackdown on illegal immigration.

Ortiz had submitted an application to be allowed to stay in the U.S. on the grounds that he is related to a U.S. citizen, but that application was still pending when orders arrived to deport him to Mexico. In May the DHS agreed to delay his deportation by a month, but this week his application was denied, and he was returned to Mexico.

"Very, very sad and very disappointed in many ways, but there's not much I can do," said Ortiz, who no longer has any living family in Mexico. "Just follow what I have to do and hopefully, in a little bit, things can get better."

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