Man shares his journey to becoming U.S. citizen

By Nick Catlin

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    ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (KOAT) — The game of soccer, or more commonly known as football, is a game Mario Garcia is familiar with.

“Every day we’ll go outside and play with my neighbors and friends, playing soccer,” Garcia said.

It’s lived within him since growing up in the streets of Torreon, Mexico. Since then, his journey has taken him across a broken border, to becoming an American citizen and connecting back to the game he loves.

“Not only as a referee but in life, when I try to do something, I give it my best,” Garcia said.

That mindset has led him to become an accountant and transition into marriage. It’s not one he takes for granted, either.

“It’s a blessing and I feel blessed that I have that opportunity, and at the same time recognizing that not everyone gets that opportunity, and they wish they had it.”

His journey to the U.S. started when he was studying to become a computer programmer in Mexico. Garcia said he had zero understanding of English then, despite trying to code using it.

Then he met an American woman while seeking an education, who would later become his wife. The pair had three children, but it took years of work, immigration meetings and funding for his journey to continue in the U.S.

His wife, Erica Garcia, spoke on the process and how those meetings made her feel like a suspect.

“I really felt interrogated to show that I loved him and that he wasn’t just giving me money under the table to become a citizen,” Erica Garcia said. “Because, you know, it happened.”

While President Donald Trump declared a mass deportation, data shows tens of thousands more were removed monthly under former President Barrack Obama.

The number of deportations and removals spiked to more than 40,000 twice during the Obama Administration. In Trump’s first two months in office, it was just over 20,000 each month.

Mario Garcia claims Obama was nicknamed around his record deportations. But also shares the current rhetoric by the Trump Administration is concerning.

“Obama is known in the community as the deportator-in-chief. He deported so many people,” Mario Garcia said. “But here is the difference between Obama or Biden, I want to say, versus our current president, President Trump. President Trump has an incendiary language against immigrants.”

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