Two years after being forced to take his family and all their belongings and leave Greenwood for Mexico, the last remaining vestige of Martin Duron-Esparza’s 20 years in America will soon be erased.
The house where Duron-Esparza, who also uses Duron as a last name, and his wife, Elizabeth, raised their five children — four of whom were born in Leflore County — will be sold on auction.com after Duron’s arrangements to continue to pay the mortgage fell through, and Pacific Union Financial foreclosed on the property. Realtors have been taking interested parties through the house.
Jim Waide of Waide and Associates in Tupelo and Amelia McGowan of the Mississippi Center for Justice in Jackson are the lawyers who represented Duron in his failed attempts to stay in Greenwood in May of 2017. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected any appeal of a federal suit that argued the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in effect were deporting U.S. citizens, the Duron children.
The federal courts didn’t rule on the validity of their argument but ruled they didn’t have jurisdiction over the matter and referred them to Immigration Court, which is an extension of the executive branch of government and not the judicial branch.
Thousands of cases have been filed with Immigration Court, so no date has been set to hear Duron’s argument. Waide said the court could hear it tomorrow or next year. He allowed he has not heard of a case presenting a similar argument that resulted in a family being allowed back into the country. “We are hoping for a positive outcome,” McGowan said.
In the meantime, Duron, his wife and their five children are living in the couple’s hometown, Asientos, in Aguascalientes, a state in central Mexico where Duron lived until he was 16 and moved to Mississippi.
Through Facebook, Duron told the Commonwealth, with money given to him by friends in Greenwood he and his family have started a business distributing beer and other products to local stores. “We are making a living of it,” he said.
Elizabeth Duron “is the happy one because she has all of her family members here,” he said.
Duron said his farm irrigation business became part of Chicot Irrigation when he left. “You know, I can say this,” Duron said. “I became one of the best in the country at my job. God knows I was good. Farmers loved and trusted me when they saw me in charge of their irrigation system.”
Duron said his children, Brittany, Jakelyn, Stefany, Wendy, and Martin Jr., are adjusting to their new life in not only a new town but a new country. He said the oldest, Brittany, is having problems with asthma, and the youngest daughter, Stefany, has been found to be on the autism spectrum.
Duron had planned to keep his house on Bell Avenue by having renters pay the mortgage, but it didn’t work.
“When we had to leave, we rented the house because on that day that was the only option we had. They were supposed to pay the payments for the house, and when we found out that they hadn’t made the payments, it was too late for me to do anything. So, we lost our house like we lost everything.”
Duron said he had a lot of dreams for his kids as they were born, went to school and grew up in America.
“I left the country (Mexico) to better our lives, and look what happened,” he said. “My kids came to the same place that I left because I could not make a living for me and help my parents. And now I came back with my wife and five kids. But everything happens for a reason.”
Duron said he was glad to keep his family together after people in Greenwood offered the children the opportunity to stay in the U.S. as their parents were forced to leave.
“The first weeks, I went to sleep thinking that when I wake up everything is going to be OK, that it’s just a bad dream. But it’s not. I tried to tell the judge that if I could go back and tell the young man (16-years-old me) and make him understand that going to America is risking his life and is wrong, he probably won’t listen to me because America gave him a beautiful family, beautiful friends and wonderful neighbors.”
Duron said he was never a problem in Greenwood, had a temporary permit to work and stay during the Obama administration in 2010, worked and saved his money to become a homeowner, started his own company, and never committed a crime.
“It is very hard to understand,” he said.
Duron thanked Waide and McGowan for working on his behalf on their own time and money, and he said he was encouraged that a court could hear his case soon.
“We are still trying to adapt to our new life,” he said. “My kids are still texting with their friends (in Greenwood), and I feel so bad because for me they lost everything they know and are in a new country with a new language.
“Many still believe in us,” he said. “I miss my USA, my Mississippi, my Greenwood, Leflore County. I miss home, and if this doesn’t work, I have to wait 10 years or more before I can do anything. That’s too much time. I did nothing wrong in the time that I was in the country, almost 21 years.”
Duron ended with, “Say hi to all my people,” before closing with “family first and family together.”
•Contact Gavin Maliska at 581-7235 or gmaliska@gwcommonwealth.com.
