When Noemi Valdovinos Bartley traveled to her native Mexico in August on what she thought was a routine trip to settle her legal status in the U.S., the 27-year-old Longview resident expected to be away from home a couple of weeks.

Nearly two months later, she and her husband, Dale Bartley, and their 2-year-old son, Cyprus, are stuck south of the border, ensnared in a tangle of U.S. immigration laws. They’re almost out of money, and with each passing day, they come closer to losing their jobs and their home in Longview.

Valdovinos Bartley had thought the process to obtain a visa for permanent U.S. residency would be a formality, considering she’d been married for six years to a U.S. citizen.

But at her initial meeting Aug. 22 at the U.S. Consulate in Juarez, Mexico, immigration officials denied her the visa because, unbeknownst to her, she’d been living in the states without proper documentation. They told her she could apply for a hardship waiver in a month.

Valdovinos Bartley assembled the necessary documents showing her family, job and life were firmly established in the U.S.

But on Sept. 24, her hardship waiver was denied. She never even got a chance to plead her case, said Dale Bartley. Instead, she was one of several applicants who were simply called into a room and told their waivers were rejected.

Now Valdovinos Bartley is stuck in Mexico indefinitely, waiting for the U.S. Consulate to agree to hear her appeal. She and her husband have been traveling from town to town, seeking a safe place to stay where Dale Bartley, a carpenter, can work for the family’s keep.

Making matters worse, Cyprus, who has battled colds while in Mexico, has stopped eating and fallen silent and unresponsive. Valdovinos Bartley has called home in Longview, crying and blaming herself for the situation, said her mother-in-law, Annette DeClue.

Valdovinos Bartley’s 13-year-old son, Angel, stayed behind in Longview with DeClue to attend school in Castle Rock, where he is an eighth-grader. He’s growing increasingly depressed over the separation from his mother, DeClue said.

DeClue, a 45-year-old disabled military veteran, has been desperately contacting everyone she can think of who might be able to intervene, including attorneys, the news media, local leaders, U.S. representatives and senators.

“We’re just asking for assistance to help get someone to listen and expedite the process for her to be seen again. … Her family needs her,” DeClue said. “Dale is frustrated by the whole situation. He can’t understand how the U.S. Consulate would deny him the right to have his family be complete in their native land.”

Building a life

As a child, Valdovinos Bartley visited the U.S. with her father, who was a farm laborer six months out of the year on a work visa. When she was 12, she witnessed her father’s murder in Mexico.

The girl ran away from home. She met a Mexican-American teen who brought her to the United States, saying he would take care of her. But he sexually assaulted her, and at age 13, Valdovinos Bartley gave birth to a son, Angel.

She’s lived in the states ever since, staying with other members of her immediate family, who are permanent legal residents.

She was 22 when she met Dale Bartley in Vancouver, Wash. She was working at Burger King, and he was applying for a job.

“He thought she was beautiful,” DeClue said.

The pair married on Aug. 9, 2002, and Valdovinos Bartley applied for U.S. citizenship.

Authorities told her she must first apply for a visa. But when they learned she already had an expired visa, she was instructed to meet with the U.S. Consulate in Mexico.

Due to the newlyweds’ financial hardship, her appointment was postponed until this year.

Meanwhile, Valdovinos Bartley and her husband moved to Longview to be closer to DeClue.

Valdovinos Bartley gave birth to another son, Cyprus. Dale Bartley, 26, got a job as construction foreman for D&A Properties, Inc., and Valdovinos Bartley began working for the same company, doing finishing and staging work. They started a business flipping houses in Longview. Recently, they bought their first home for themselves.

Their next-door neighbors and the Bartleys’ employer, David Thelin of D&A Properties, wrote letters of support for the couple to immigration officials. Their attorney, John Lee Carrico of Reno, Nev., also has been fighting for Valdovinos Bartley’s re-entry into the United States.

‘A family torn apart’

With everything the couple has at stake, DeClue doesn’t see how immigration authorities could deny her daughter-in-law’s hardship waiver.

“I can’t think of any other hardship that there could be other than a family torn apart. Not only torn apart but to lose everything that they have worked so hard to gain,” DeClue said.

In the last week, she’s sent a flurry of faxes to U.S. senators Maria Cantwell, Patty Murray, John McCain and Barack Obama, as well as U.S. Rep. Brian Baird.

Wednesday, Cantwell’s spokeswoman, Ciaran Clayton, said her office sent a letter Wednesday to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, asking officials to do everything possible to speed up the process of getting Valdovinos a hardship waiver.

DeClue said she’s gotten messages from Murray’s and Baird’s offices this week, asking for copies of paperwork.

“Everybody is looking into it, as far as I know,” she said.

Leaving no stone unturned, she visited Longview Mayor Kurt Anagnostou at his law office Tuesday. He interrupted a meeting to see her immediately, DeClue said.

Anagnostou called Baird’s office, asking him to intercede on the family’s behalf.

“It’s a heart-rending story, and if Brian can help — I hope he does, I hope he can. It’s a sad situation,” Anagnostou said.