Southern California sisters face losing mom to brain cancer, father to deportation

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Three sisters in Big Bear Lake are bracing for the unimaginable — losing both parents.The girls’ mother has been battling Stage 4 brain cancer and is in hospice with only a short time left to live.And now, their 49-year-old father, Armando Gonzalez, a local handyman, is facing the threat of deportation after he was detained by federal immigration agents in Big Bear Lake this week.In a phone interview with The Times, Adriana Gonzalez, 20, and her sister, Citlalli Montes, 26, said they’ve been feeling overwhelmed, heartbroken and fearful as they balance caring for their dying mother and helping their father.

“I feel like our hearts not only broke once but twice,” Gonzalez said.“We also feel scared because we don’t know what’s next — our mom’s time is limited.” In addition to helping their mother and father, they’ve also been trying to support their 16-year-old sister, who is in school.

The sisters are afraid that their mother may die while they’re out helping their father.“We’re just in the middle more than anything because they both need us,” Gonzalez said.Since their father was detained, the Gonzalez sisters have taken to the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe to raise money to provide legal assistance to their father so that he can be home with his wife.The two sisters said federal immigration agents detained their father shortly before 8 a.m on Tuesday at Big Bear Boulevard and Wren Drive.

World & Nation Prolonged detention has become more common in President Trump’s second term, at least partly because a new policy generally prohibits immigration judges from releasing detainees while their deportation cases wind through backlogged courts.Adriana Gonzalez said videos and photos of federal immigration agents surrounding her father’s truck began to circulate within the community.“My aunt found out first and she came to the house, woke us ...