A 58-year-old woman, who was adopted by American parents, has been ordered to be deported to Mexico. The woman, Tara Ammona Cohen, has been in detention in Tacoma, Washington since July 2009. The deportation order from the judge relates to a drug conviction she has on her record.

Cohen was adopted from a Mexican orphanage when she was only 5 months old. She was raised and has lived as an American. She married a US citizen and has American children. Unfortunately, her parents never had her naturalized after her adoption. She began to look at the process of gaining US citizenship. However, by that time, she had already been convicted of a crime. She was arrested in 2008 on charges of drug trafficking and theft. She pleaded guilty to theft and trafficking, and served three months of a one-year-and-a-day sentence. When she was released from prison, she was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

Because her citizenship process was not complete, and she did not have legal residency status, she was marked for deportation after her criminal conviction. Cohen has appealed. The federal Bureau of Immigration Appeals will consider her appeal.

Her immigration lawyers insist that she will be persecuted in Mexico. According to her lawyers, the fact that she does not speak the language, or have a method of earning a living in Mexico, would make life as an immigrant in Mexico simply unbearable. She also claims she would likely be subjected to abuse and violence. Further, she suffers from bipolar disorder, and has also been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. She believes that her disorders make her a candidate for persecution in Mexico. Besides, she has no friends or relatives in Mexico, having lived in the US all of her life.

Issues relating to deportation are some of the most complex that end up before a California immigration lawyer, and immigration laws can be harsh. Conviction of a crime before naturalization is just one way a potential citizen can face deportation.