Jersey Vargas, a 10-year-old Mexican girl who traveled to Rome to ask Pope Francis to ask President Obama to stop the deportations from the United States, returned home to find a huge surprise.
During her brief meeting with the Pope last Tuesday, the girl told Francis that she was very worried about her father's imminent deportation, who was detained in an Indiana jail.
The girl's story moved Francis so much that he promised her that he would bring up the subject with President Obama, which took place last Thursday.
When the girl returned to the U.S. last Friday along with a California delegation who traveled to Rome to ask the Pope to ask Barack Obama to stop deportations, her surprise was huge when she saw that her father was waiting for her at the Los Angeles International Airport, according to CNN.
Mario Vargas, Jersey's father, was arrested in Tennessee for a traffic ticket and driving under the influence of alcohol. Since he did not have documents to prove that he is an American citizen, the man was handed over to immigration authorities and awaited his deportation, according to the quoted source.
However, thanks to his daughter's efforts, Mario was transferred to a detention center in Louisiana, where he was freed on Friday after posting bail.
"I feel very proud, because I had been fighting for him for a long time. It has been difficult because my dad isn't home. My mom provided for my family all this time, she has been mom and dad for two years," said little Jersey, during an interview with the media at the Los Angeles International Airport, according to CBS.
The quoted source said that Lola Vargas, Jersey's mother, had been gathering money to pay her husband's bail, but was not able to collect all the money, until one of his cousins offered to help after watching the girl on TV.
Video via Univisión.