Sergio Angel Martinez Lopez was separated from his son when he asked the U.S. for asylum in October at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. (GSA.gov)
U.S. border officials separated a son from his father, who decided to seek asylum in the U.S. after his wife was gunned down in Mexico, a report said Tuesday.
Sergio Angel Martinez Lopez, 32, fled with his nearly 2-year-old son Sergio Angel Martinez Gaona to the U.S. from Mexico after his wife Glenda Siboney Gaona Zamora was killed in a drive-by shooting, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Lopez had asked for asylum in October at California's San Ysidro Port of Entry, where border officials separated him from his son, the paper reported. They said the child would be united with his father's mother in Jacksonville, Fla., the report said.
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But about 10 weeks later, the toddler is still in U.S. custody in Texas, the father said, according the paper.
Martinez, who previously held a green card in the U.S., was deported to Mexico in September 2014, for a felony conviction -- something he said he fells like he's still being punished for, the Union-Tribune reported.
“If they’d focused on why I came to ask for asylum, I don’t think they’d have the heart to separate me and the baby,” Martinez said.
He was asking the U.S. for protection from those who killed his wife and had waited in the six-week line at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the report said.
“I would’ve never went if I had known they would take my baby away,” Martinez said.
He is currently being held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego.
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