PHILADELPHIA — Tears of joy flowed down Karen Serrano Roberts' face as she walked into the Leon H. Sullivan International Arrivals Hall Wednesday evening with her husband, LaMar, by her side.
Her lawyer, Thomas Griffin, and Anthony Twyman, the deacon from her church who first contacted The Inquirer with their story, were inside to give hugs.
Outside the terminal, the reunions with her children and mother came in stages. Her two sons, Lamar and Nathan, greeted her first. Big smiles spread across the boys' faces but they held the tears at bay for the most part. Roberts hugged the boys tight.
"It's amazing," said Nathan, who turns 13 later this month. He then admitted he had shed a couple of tears.
Lamar Jr., 16, said, " I'm shocked." The boys' paternal grandmother, Roselee Roberts, wanted to surprise her grandchildren by telling them they were going to pick up their father.
About 15 minutes later, the couple's three daughters arrived at the sidewalk outside Terminal A. Jade, 9, and Essence, 6, shrieked, "Mommy!" and let their tears flow as they held onto her.
Jade said later, "I feel kind of bad because [in rushing to hug her mom] I pushed my dad out of the way."
Dulce, 17, Karen Roberts' eldest, said she wasn't surprised because she felt in her heart that her mother was coming home this night.
Finally, the children's maternal grandmother, Laura Cauhey, caught up with the family. Karen hugged her mother tight and wouldn't let go for several minutes. Cauhey stroked her daughter's face and kissed her gently on her forehead. "This is my first baby," she said
Karen Roberts, 32, had been stuck in immigration limbo in Mexico for nearly two years after getting a lawyer's advice in July 2021 that she should return to Mexico to apply for her green card at the U.S. Consulate's office.
She had been told by her legal counsel at the time that the process would take four days. Instead, immigration officials told Roberts, then 30, that because she had been brought into the United States from Mexico at age 4 without legal documents, she would have to wait 10 years to apply to reenter.
LaMar Roberts was devastated by the turn of events. He was home in Yeadon trying to raise their five children who were, at the time, ages 15, 14, 11, 8 and 5. How was he going to work as a contractor repairing houses and get five children, worried and anxious about being without their mother, back and forth to school every day?
LaMar's mother, Roselee Roberts, who lives in North Philadelphia, said she had been praying for her son and daughter-in-law to be reunited. But she also worked with other relatives to write letters to President Joe Biden, Senator Bob Casey and others. And she helped start a Change.org petition to ask the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to expedite a waiver request to allow Karen to return home.
"It was overwhelming to see him struggling and trying to take care of two households, with the children here in Yeadon and their mother in Mexico," she said. "He was suffering with no idea how things were going to work out."
She said LaMar worried about keeping Karen safe in Mexico, and moved her to different locations in tourist areas so that people would not figure out she was in the country alone.
On March 23, LaMar told The Inquirer, which first reported on the family's struggles last December, that he finally got word that Karen's application for a waiver that would allow her to remain in the United States with her family had been approved.
Thomas Griffin, Karen's new immigration attorney, had asked the USCIS to expedite her request for the I-601A waiver, which allows undocumented residents who are relatives of U.S. citizens to become documented without leaving the country.
Unfortunately, Griffin said, the first lawyer the Roberts dealt with told Karen to leave the country before applying for and receiving that crucial waiver.
By March 27, LaMar was flying to Mexico with updated documents to arrange for Karen to receive a visa to enter the United States legally. But first she had to undergo a medical exam and await the agency's processing of her visa.
That took several days, and the family was finally reunited Wednesday.
While LaMar was in Mexico, Roselee Roberts took care of the two boys. The three girls stayed with Karen's mother in Delaware County.
Within a couple months, the family could be welcoming a sixth child. During Karen's 21 months in Mexico, LaMar Roberts and his children got passports and managed to make several trips to visit her.
"I feel like a family circle that has been broken is finally back together again," Roselee Roberts said. "The love that he had for her was stronger than his struggles."
For his part, LaMar Roberts said he had nothing but praise for Griffin, the lawyer and his team. He also praised Twyman, the deacon who sought media attention to help the family.
"He's like our angel," Karen said of Twyman.
LaMar said they plan to see him at the Bread of Life Assembly of God church on Easter Sunday
"God is amazing," Twyman said. "Only God could do this."
