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SAN ANTONIO – A married couple is finally done battling the immigration system after losing thousands of dollars and being separated.

KSAT first spoke with the couple in June, when Carlos Zurita was stuck in Mexico due to an administrative issue in the process of obtaining permanent residency, also known as a green card.

Less than two weeks after KSAT spoke with Kendall Zurita and reached out to Rep. Greg Casar’s office, Carlos is back home.

“You can’t have something like this buried at the bottom of a piece of paperwork when a father has been separated from his kids when he’s just literally trying to follow the law,” Casar said.

Carlos was first brought to the U.S. without legal status when he was 2 years old. Eventually, he became a protected person under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program.

However, his final step to obtain permanent residency had to be completed in Mexico. Then, he was refused under 221(g).

According to the U.S. Department of State, a visa refusal under section 221(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act means the “applicant was not eligible for a visa after completing the process.”

Kendall said there was no information provided about why his permanent residency was refused, despite them having spent approximately $17,000 on the immigration process so far.

“That second interview that I had, from there, it was just bad news of telling me that ‘you’re not going back home today,’” Carlos said. “And it either was going to be a couple of weeks, a month, or up to a year.”

“Everything was just taken away from me: my family, my wife, my kids,” Carlos said.

That was when Kendall reached out to Casar and kept in contact with their lawyer. KSAT contacted Casar’s after meeting with Kendall on June 21.

“We make sure to follow up and push agencies to look at cases like this,” Casar said.

About a week later, on June 27, Carlos received a call from Kendall that he would never forget.

“She was in tears,” Carlos said. “She called me at noon and was like, ‘Hey, make your way to the U S consulate.’ The lady that was at the U S consulate was telling me, ‘Hey, you’re able to go home today.’”

“We’re supposed to be keeping people safe, not separating innocent people from their families,” Casar said.

“San Antonio is my home,” Carlos said. “To be back with my family, my wife, I wake up every morning just being thankful and grateful to God.”

“It’ll be another three years before you have to go through the next step to be a U.S. citizen, but he’s safe now, and that’s a sense of security,” Kendall said.