Family Fighting To Bring Back Father Deported Over Broken Tailight

LONG BEACH (CBSLA.com) — The only way the Alvarez family can spend time together as a unit is by touching hands through the bars of the border fence.

Last February father and husband, Jose Alvarez, was deported after he was pulled over for a broken tail light at Cal State Long Beach. Now his family is hoping the Long Beach City Council can help bring him home. His daughter has pleaded with council members to pass a symbolic resolution.

Alvarez has six kids born here, one of whom served in the military. His family says he's been a model neighbor with the exception of a drug conviction back in 1995, which is why when the officer pulled Alvarez over for the routine stop, immigration officials got involved.

"This one officer who acted like an ICE agent took my father to the campus and held him there until ICE came to deport him to Mexico," Alvarez's daughter said.

Long Beach's city council voted to approve a resolution recommending humanitarian parole for Alvarez. But as some council members warned, they actually have no power to bring him back. The vote was largely symbolic.