The decade-long deportation case against 54-year-old Dolores Bustamante could come to an unceremonious end on Wednesday morning in downtown Buffalo.
That is when the Wayne County apple farmworker has a scheduled check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I actually recommended her not to go to this appointment, because it's very likely that she's going to be detained,” said Jose Perez, her attorney. "And she said, like, ‘No. I'm going. I'm not going to be a fugitive.’”
The case of this prominent labor rights advocate has been chronicled in local and national media, her story interwoven into a broader conversation about year-round farmworkers and the deportation of long-term residents. She has come close to removal before. But while her friends work to rally support yet again, both from the community and from elected leaders, Bustamante is undeterred.
“If I were to decide not to show up for my appointment ... ah, that is something I would never want to experience,” Bustamante said, speaking in Spanish. “I have known people who made the decision not to appear, and now they have to go around hiding — changing jobs, uprooting their lives. They don't go out. They stay cooped up, going only from work to home. And even that doesn't guarantee that they won't get detained anyway.
“It creates an immense amount of stress,” she continued, “stress that I simply do not want to endure.”
There is another reason.
"It’s better to act correctly," she said, "even if it has consequences — because I’ll feel better about myself."
Perez is seeking an emergency stay, with hopes of reopening her case. Federal authorities began removal proceedings against her in 2014. She ultimately lost her plea for asylum and her appeal. Hers was a not a priority case under the Biden administration, but it moved back onto the calendar when President Donald Trump returned to office last year.
“The issue that I have with this case is that President Trump has been saying that he's trying to deport criminals that, you know, it's all about criminals, criminal people,” Perez said. “And this is not a criminal at all.”
In a statement, Congressman Joe Morelle, D-Irondequoit, described Bustamante as "the kind of person our country depends on, but too often fails to protect.
"Now she faces possible detention and deportation because of a cruel immigration system that targets people like her," he continued. "Dolores is a beloved member of our community, and she and her family deserve the chance to keep building a better life right here in Rochester. Anything less is a failure of our values and a betrayal of the ideals we claim to uphold.”
Last week, Bustamante was at the bank, ensuring everything was in order so her taxes would still get paid if she ends up getting removed.
She is a mother and grandmother, a churchgoer. She's a community organizer and a leader on farmworkers’ rights who has been living in the United States for more than 22 years.
She has twice spoken at Harvard University, once about her advocacy for female farmworkers, and another time about sustainable agriculture. And she is a beloved and engrained part of the rural farmworker community outside Wolcott where she lives — in a house filled with plants, its walls adorned with hummingbird decals, and seedling trays on the front step waiting for peppers to pop.
But she also has been living on borrowed time, as far as federal immigration officials are concerned.
Bustamante came onto their radar in 2014, when State Police stopped her for speeding and driving without a license, and called Border Patrol.
She had crossed the border from her native Mexico in December 2003, fleeing domestic violence with her 3-year-old daughter. Another daughter would later follow to the United States. She also has a grown daughter still living in Mexico. Her only son was killed there several years ago.
At an initial ICE check-in last summer, she presented a draft motion to reopen her case as her daughter, a permanent resident, would be applying for citizenship. And that, in turn, could pave the way for her to obtain a visa. But her daughter cannot apply until August and is not eligible until November at the earliest. Her brother is already a U.S. citizen, but her daughter's application would carry more weight with the court, Perez said, and offers greater promise.
Perez explained that his recommendation for Bustamante to skip the check-in is because being in non-compliance can be fixed. And it is better than having a deportation on your record when it comes to getting the visa.
Bustamante disagrees.
“I am going to show up,” she said in Spanish, seeing the outcome as God's will: “Y pues que sea lo que Dios quiera.”
