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Immigrant's jailhouse wedding gets OK from sheriff

Mark Curnutte
Cincinnati Enquirer
Yancarlos Mendez, Sandra Mendoza and her son, Ricky Solis, before Ricky was paralyzed in a February 2017 car crash.

The wedding is back on for a Springdale man who's sitting in a central Ohio jail while his lawyers try to prevent his deportation.

Less than a day after saying he would not allow the jailhouse wedding of Yancarlos Mendez and his fiancee, Morrow County Sheriff John L. Hinton said he will let the ceremony take place in his jail.

First, though, he told lawyers for Mendez, he needs permission from federal immigration officials.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have requested a letter from Mendez and Sandra Mendoza that states their desire to get married, said attorney Nazly Mamedova. It will be sent Friday.

The couple had hoped to be married Friday.

"That time I got too excited, so I am not going to get too excited this time," Mendoza said. "I want to be excited when the moment happens."

Marriage could improve Mendez's chances of being allowed to stay in the United States.

The auto mechanic has been living with his fiancee and her 6-year-old son Ricky Solis since 2014, financially supporting both and helping care for the boy since he was badly injured in a car crash last year. 

Mendez spoke Friday afternoon with The Enquirer.

"I am trying to be fine and good today, but in here nobody is good," Mendez said. "I miss my future wife and Ricky. I miss Ricky so much. He is everything to me. My life changed (for) the better the day I met Ricky."

When Mendez was arrested in Butler County in November for driving without a license and then scheduled for deportation, he requested a hardship waiver to stay in the United States. Mendez and Mendoza are the only people trained to provide the complex care Ricky needs.

After ascertaining that Mendez is not the boy's biological father, ICE denied the waiver. However, being married to Mendoza would make him Ricky's stepfather, a legally recognized relationship.

The couple had been planning to marry since February, but the wedding was delayed because of Ricky's health. The child remains hospitalized at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, where he awaits abdominal surgery related to his injuries. 

"Every day he asks for his daddy," Mendoza said. "He wants to come home. He wants us to be together like we used to be."

Attorneys for Mendez sent Hinton a letter late Thursday. It included case law that prohibiting jailhouse weddings violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

Hinton said the letter had no effect on him. He said he had explained to ICE officials in Columbus that Mendez's attorneys kept asking for the jailhouse wedding and that he continued to deny it because they had not filed the proper paperwork with immigration. Hinton said the lawyers did not know the procedure of going through ICE and that he told them several times to contact federal officials.

"I told ICE I would hold the wedding if they approved of it," the sheriff said.

Mendez isn't at immediate risk of being deported because the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals granted a temporary stay last week. On Thursday, the court set a schedule for his court case moving forward with his appeal of the deportation order that could keep him in the United States at least until April.

Mendez, who originally entered the country on a 90-day Visa Waiver Program, is a native of the Dominican Republic with dual Spanish citizenship.