The mother of an Army soldier who died after she ran "into hell" to assist a wounded soldier during battle was ordered not to be deported, despite two drug convictions, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Maria Cordova, 47, was convicted of two felony drug charges, but is the mother of the fallen 25-year-old soldier, Jennifer Moreno. Cordova was released Wednesday from an immigration facility in San Diego after serving time on her most recent drug conviction, the paper reported.
"After conducting a comprehensive review of her case, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has chosen to grant Ms. Cordova-Urieta a one-year stay of removal and release from ICE custody," a spokeswoman told the paper.
Cordova, who worked as a housekeeper, was convicted of felony transportation of cocaine after her arrest in 2012 and scheduled to be deported to Mexico, the report said. She spoke to the paper through her lawyer and called the decision "bittersweet" because of her daughter's death.
Peter Nunez, a former U.S. Attorney, told the paper that she is "using her dead child to advantage her own interests."
Cordova's past, however, does little to diminish her daughter's last act.
The young nurse died on Oct. 5, 2013, in a brutal confrontation in Kandahar. She volunteered for the dangerous assignment to assist special operation forces in an attempt to stop a plot to kill civilians. Four soldiers died and at least 25 were wounded, Marine Corps Times reported. The fight was so violent, another bomb detonated while soldiers recovered her body.
The intervention that night prevented the "deaths of unknown multitudes of innocent civilians," the Army said.
"None of us would have done what you did, running into hell to save your wounded brothers, knowing full well you probably wouldn't make it back," the commander of her unit wrote in a eulogy.
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