This week, The Greenville News published the compelling story of Fatima Quintana, a remarkable young woman from Spartanburg who is struggling to build a future that was suddenly torn apart about two years ago.
Fatima spent nearly her entire life believing she was adopted and an American citizen after a couple from South Carolina brought her home from Nicaragua when she was four years old. She came here on a medical visa – the couple, who were on a mission trip, said they’d bring her here to have treatments she needed.
When she was about to start her senior year of high school, a federal agent rang the doorbell at Fatima’s house. He bore a letter saying that her citizenship status was under review and she had to attend a meeting about it. At the meeting a couple of weeks later, she learned she was never legally adopted, and that the people she knew as her parents, Michael and Charlotte Taylor, never took care of her immigration status.