Oliva went to work on Monday morning, then came home to take his 8-year-old stepson Scout to school and then went back to work as Alvarez watched their 9-month-old son Denver.

Soon after, Alvarez saw the police outside the family’s home, which is near the Williamsport-Loyalsock Township line. Just one officer at first, then more. Then she noticed from her window that they were wearing tactical vests.

“I was kind of scared,” she said.

Alvarez went outside to see her husband, who she shared has no criminal record, in handcuffs. Oliva pleaded with her not to worry, and said he would call her as soon as he could.

Oliva, 34, came to the U.S. more than three years ago from Peru, his wife said, “to make money for his family. His mom was sick and they needed money.”

When he crossed the border, he visited authorities and was issued the documentation necessary to begin the process of staying in the United States legally. He routinely completed each phase of the paperwork, started a business, paid taxes and went to two of three court appointments necessary to continue the process.

“He was legal here to work,” Alvarez noted.

Notification of a date for the third court appointment was mailed to an outdated address, and so he missed it.

“They would not even look me in the eyes,” Alvarez said of the day ICE agents took her husband into custody.

“I just kept saying, ‘please, he is a good person, please,'” said Alvarez. “This was like our worst fear.”

Oliva was held for about two weeks at Clinton County Correctional Facility, then transported to a facility in Texas for a week. When he left Texas, he told his wife he was unsure where they were taking him and feared he was being sent back to his birth-country of Peru.

The family hired a lawyer and tried to secure a stop to Oliva’s deportation.

“We sent in our marriage license, his birth certificate, I even sent in a note from my doctor, because I have a neurological disorder through migraines, saying, like ‘I am going to suffer without him,'” said Alvarez.

Oliva’s tax ID number, tax papers, and business papers were also sent.

After a stint in a detention center in Louisiana, he was in fact deported back to Peru.

“They still came back to us and said, ‘nope he is going to go,'” said Alvarez

Alvarez, whose dad served in the armed forces and grew up in California and Florida, among other places, moved to Williamsport, attended Pennsylvania College of Technology and, before marrying and having children, worked with people with special needs as a supervisor at Hope Enterprises.

Nicole Alvarez snuggles with her son Denver as she recounts how her husband Roberto Diego Alvarez Oliva was detained and subsequently deported to Peru by ICE. Roberto was originally from Peru and was in the process of qualifying for legal status. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

The strain of losing the family’s provider has led her and her children to moving in with her terminally ill mother in Bradford County. She is in the process of finding a lawyer well-prepared to handle her husband’s immigration case.

“We know it’s probably going to take at least three years,” she said.

One lawyer told her it could take eight years.

She also is preparing herself for the likelihood that the process will cost $12,000 or more.

Oliva is staying with his mother and sisters in Lima, Peru, working 15 hours a day in construction and making about $30 for that work day.

“He has nothing in Peru, so I have to send him clothing, belongings, those things. It’s expensive,” shared Alvarez.

He stays in touch with his wife and children through phone calls and Facetime.

“He’ll say to me, ‘I hope he remembers me,'” shared Alvarez of Oliva’s fear of his young son.

“I think a lot of people are black and white about immigration and — people are people,” said Alvarez.

“I feel that if I were unfortunate enough to be born … where life isn’t great, you can bet your butt I’m gonna go someplace to make a better life for my family,” said Alvarez.

“I think people should be a little more accepting of people like that, like my husband. He just works, works and takes care of his family and that’s it, That’s all he was doing here,” said Alvarez.

Alvarez is planning on taking their son, 9-month-old Denver, to Peru in a couple of weeks.

“We tell each other when we’re on the phone, we’ll never, ever take each other for granted again,” she said. “I’m going to lose it in the airport when he sees his son. When they lock eyes.”

The GoFund me for the Alvarez family.