Man's deportation to Mexico turns out to be 'death sentence'

Juan Coronilla-Guerrero's wife feared her husband's deportation to Mexico would be a death sentence, and she turned out to be right.

Coronilla-Guerrero was found dead three months after being booted from Texas by immigration agents, according to the American-Statesman.

His death came after his wife had told a federal judge that her husband would be in grave danger.

"I knew," his wife told the newspaper. "I knew that if he came back here, they were going to kill him, and look, that's what happened. That's what happened," she told the paper.

Coronilla-Guerrero's wife, who was not identified, said four gunmen broke into the family home in San Luis de la Paz earlier this month and abducted him. One of their children was in bed with Coronilla-Guerrero when he was taken.

"'Don’t worry, my love. Don’t worry,'" Coronilla-Guerrero told his son, his wife told the American-Statesman.

Coronilla-Guerrero's body was found the next day, and authorities say he was shot to death. His wife was not in Mexico at the time of the abduction, but she later returned.

She told the newspaper that she believes her husband's life was taken by the same gangs that led them to move to Texas.

"Juan was a very nice young man who always had a smile on his face," Austin lawyer David Peterson told the newspaper. "This is a true tragedy for him and his family. Deportation should never be a death sentence."

Coronilla-Guerrero, who was 28, had been detained by ICE agents during a court appearance in Travis County. He was facing family violence and marijuana possession charges, according to the American-Statesman. He had also been arrested when he was 18.

His wife said the family violence charge was a misunderstanding.

"Yes, he made mistakes in the past, but he had a family," she told the newspaper. "It wasn’t fair because he had changed. Because all people change, and he had changed for the better."

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