East Texas veteran back home with family after near deportation
RUSK, Texas (KLTV) - Julio Torres, a veteran and minister in Rusk, returned home before July Fourth after a week-long battle to stop his deportation.
Torres has been a permanent resident in the U.S. since 1993 and has lived with his family in Rusk for a few years.
“This is our forever home. We have other houses on the property where one of them is for my daughter, one of them is for my son. This is where we are going to grow old and have grandkids,” said Torres.
He served as a Marine from 2000 to 2003, when he was honorably discharged. After his time as a Marine, Torres struggled with PTSD and drug addiction, which landed him in jail.
He completed his time and has not had any issues with his past until now.
“So, when they asked me what my name was, they said, ‘Hey, you are being detained.’ I said, ‘For what? I didn’t commit any crimes.’ They said, ‘No, it’s because of crimes you committed a decade ago.’” Torres said, explaining his interaction with the immigration officers.
He was then taken into custody at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, after he came back from a trip to Mexico to see family. After being detained, he called his wife and gave her the news, leaving her wondering if and how he could get back home.
“I told him, ‘You are kidding me!’ He said, ‘No, I’m going to be detained,’ and after that it was just chaos. You know, it was crazy. I couldn’t imagine being without him” said Maria Torres, Julio’s wife.
Maria Torres and many community members, including Pastor Jeremy Driver, began spreading the word in an effort to raise awareness of the situation.
After seven long days at the ICE Detention Center in Alvarado, 40 minutes south of Arlington, a phone call during a service put together by Driver gave them the best news they could ever ask for.
“Maria, his wife, was in the audience, and I saw her looking at her phone. I said, ‘What is it?’ She said, ‘He’s free!’ and the church just erupted in praise. It was amazing,” said Driver.
“I never thought I would spend the Fourth of July free,” Julio Torres said. “It was actually very sad and ironic, in the sense that I’m going to spend the Fourth of July, the day of freedom, behind bars. God came and he freed me.”
Now, back with his family, Julio Torres plans on getting back to being a minister right away. Just as he did before his detention, Torres plans on giving back to his community any way that he can.
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