The question — if you were sent back to Mexico, what would happen to your wife? — drew a long pause from Carlos Navarro, whose status in the United States hangs in the balance.
The 66-year-old Santaquin man had just explained to the Salt Lake Immigration Court that surgeons removed a cancerous tumor from the stomach of his wife, Placida, and would soon operate on her liver. He is her primary caretaker, driving her to doctor's appointments and making sure she gets her medication.
Navarro broke the silence choked with emotion.
"Es posible que se muera," he said through an interpreter while wiping away a tear.
"She could die."
His wife's illness actually works in Navarro's favor as Judge William L. Nixon contemplates deporting him. Nixon has already determined that due to his criminal record, Navarro is "removable" from the United States. At issue is whether he should grant him relief.
But it won't be resolved until next May. After more than three hours of questions, Nixon continued a mid-September hearing to the court's next available open date — eight months down the road.
Though the Department of Justice opened an immigration court in Salt Lake City just four months ago, it already has a backlog of more than 800 cases. It sometimes has more than 30 hearings on its daily calendar.
Nixon has his hands full, as does Matthew Hall, the attorney representing the Department of Homeland Security on Utah immigration matters. Prior to June, Salt Lake cases were handled in Denver by video conference.
The new court has some bugs to work out. It occupies temporary space at the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services in Murray. Though its proceedings are public, the courtroom is not very accessible. The court docket is not posted in a public place nor is it available online.
Elaine Komis, spokeswoman for the Executive Office for Immigration Review in Virginia, said there's not much she can do because the Justice Department rents the room from Homeland Security. The court intends to move to a building near the Salt Lake Airport early next year.
Immigration courts conduct formal administrative hearings, basically trials, to determine whether foreign-born individuals charged with breaking immigration laws should be deported. They also consider petitions for asylum.
Alleged violators come to the court's attention through a variety of ways, including overstaying visas and being arrested for or convicted of crimes. Immigration authorities routinely cull county jail records for inmates born outside the United States.
In the past six years, judges have issued 1,874 deportation orders in Utah, according to the Executive Office of Immigration Review. Removal occurs in about 61 percent of cases.
Anna Navarro hopes her father isn't among them.
"It would really hurt," she said.
Her 5-year-old daughter and 19-month-old son adore their grandfather, she says. She and her children live with her parents. She is the only one of their children born in the United States.
The eight-month reprieve until the next hearing is both relief and agony. "I want them to decide soon, but I want him to stay," Anna Navarro said.
Carlos Navarro came to the United States as a migrant worker in 1973. He has spent his life working in Utah County orchards. He became a legal permanent resident in 1990.
But because of his criminal history, including domestic violence convictions in 1995 and 2002, the government has the right to reconsider his status.
Much of the recent hearing revolved around those convictions and past allegations of smuggling family members into the country. Navarro wasn't charged with a crime in those cases and denies the accusations.
At one point, Nixon admonished Navarro to carefully answer each question. "Your credibility is very much at issue here," he said.
Navarro has already decided that if he is sent back to Mexico, his wife will go with him. He said he hasn't explored cancer treatment for her there.
E-mail: romboy@desnews.com