Oscar and Humberta Campos said goodbye to their children, ages 24, 22, and 16, before boarding a flight back to their native country. ... They boarded a 6:30 a.m. flight at Newark International Airport bound for Mexico City.
Campos said he fled violence in his hometown, Tamaulipas, and crossed the border into Texas in 1989. In their nearly 30 years of living in the U.S., the couple purchased a home in Bridgeton and had a landscaping business, the Courier Post reported. Their two oldest children are college graduates.
Deacon Arnaldo Santos of the Parish of the Holy Cross in Bridgeton, who has been assisting the family, called the Campos couple "good parents" and noted they didn't have a criminal record, according to the Post.
"I want criminals out of this country. I want them to get locked up," Santos told the Post. "But I have known this family for over 20 years. They are respectful, spiritual ... they are a good, good family and that's why I'm petitioning."