Undocumented Harvard junior who accompanied dying mother to Mexico for cancer treatment without government approval will be allowed to return to the US

  • Dario Guerrero Meneses, 21, a film major at Harvard, has been living in crime-ridden Mexico City suburb since the summer 
  • He traveled to Mexico this summer to take his cancer-stricken mother to a clinic 
  • Rocio Meneses Diaz passed away August 14, and when her son tried to re-enter the country, he was turned back 
  • Dario was brought to the US by his undocumented parents as a toddler but only found out about his status recently 
  • Illegal immigrants wishing to travel outside the US can submit a request for a special authorization, but the process is often time-consuming 
  • Dario's attorney, Alan Klein, told MailOnline his humanitarian parole request was approved Tuesday and he'll be able to return in a week  

An undocumented Harvard University student was recently granted access to re-enter the U.S. after making the desperate decision to cross the border into Mexico to see his dying mother.

Film student Dario Guerrero Meneses, 21, has been stranded in mexico for weeks after his mother's passing but on Tuesday he received the happy news that U.S. Customs would be allowing him back into the country as soon as next week.

'The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service did a great thing just a few minutes ago and they granted and approved Dario's humanitarian parole visa request so he can return to America. He should be back in America in a few days,' Guerrero's lawyer, Alan Klein, told ABC News

In limbo: Dario Guerrero, center, poses with his grandparents Dario Guerrero Garrido and Crescencia Garcia Vazquez at their home in the outskirts of Mexico City, where the Harvard junior has been living since the summer because the US government has barred him from returning home 

In limbo: Dario Guerrero, center, poses with his grandparents Dario Guerrero Garrido and Crescencia Garcia Vazquez at their home in the outskirts of Mexico City, where the Harvard junior has been living since the summer because the US government has barred him from returning home 

Dario Guerrero
Rocio Meneses Diaz

Son's duty: Dario, left, accompanied his undocumented mother, Rocio Meneses Diaz, right, to a clinic in Mexico in a last-ditch effort to find a treatment for her terminal cancer 

The Harvard junior was faced with an impossible choice this summer: his mother's life or his immigration status.

Dario was brought to the US as a toddler by his undocumented parents, and was desperate to find a treatment for his terminally ill mother that he decided to take her to a clinic in Mexico without waiting for permission from US immigration officials. 

For Rocio Meneses Diaz, Dario's mother, the chemotherapy stopped working last spring, as did the radiation. Doctors had already removed one of her kidneys. So her son did what any computer-savvy kid might do for a dying parent — he searched online and jumped into action. 

Guerrero found clinics offering alternative treatments in Mexico and took his mother across the border, hoping to keep her alive.

In an immigration system where even the smallest mistake can bring dire consequences, Guerrero knowingly broke a rule by leaving the US without federal authorization. 

'He panicked. His dad and mom wanted him to go, and he did the best thing he thought he could do for his family,' said his lawyer Alan Klein.

Guerrero had lived in the United States illegally since he was 2. His parents brought him from Mexico City to California, and they overstayed tourist visas. 

He breezed through school, earning a scholarship to a John Hopkins University summer school program at 13. Eventually, along with hundreds of thousands of other young immigrants, he was granted a temporary reprieve from the threat of deportation under a 2012 Obama administration order.

The catch: If these immigrants ever leave the US without government approval, they lose their protected status.

Guerrero was at his mother's side when she died weeks later. But now, instead of cramming for exams, the film studies major is stuck at his grandparents' house in a gang-ridden suburb of Mexico City, hoping to persuade the US government to let him come home.  

Real-life drama: Dario, a film major, records his surroundings with a video camera on the rooftop of his grandparents' home in the gang-controlled outskirts of Mexico City

Real-life drama: Dario, a film major, records his surroundings with a video camera on the rooftop of his grandparents' home in the gang-controlled outskirts of Mexico City

In a phone interview with MailOnline Tuesday evening, Mr Klein revealed that the US government has just approved Dario’s humanitarian parole, clearing the way for him to return home in about a week.

Klein said he has been unable to reach his client to give him the good news because his cellphone had been stolen by hostile locals in Mexico, but he is certain Dario 'will be stoked.' 

Guerrero will spend the next few days arranging the transportation of his mother’s body back to Long Beach for burial.

According to the attorney, the 21-year-old soon will be reunited with his girlfriend, who is pregnant with the couple’s first child, and he likely will be able to return to Harvard.

Klein pointed out that the Ivy League school has been very helpful and supportive of the student throughout the entire ordeal.

Alan Klein explained to MailOnline that in June, Dario applied for advance parole, which is a permission for an undocumented immigrant to leave and re-enter the US, but in July his application was still pending.

Dario Guerrero did not know he could expedite his request, according to Mr Klein, so when he had not heard from immigration by mid-July, he decided to go to Mexico anyway.

'My mom had a lot of ups and downs,' Dario told the Associated Press. 'The decision to actually leave was made overnight.'

His lawyer, Alan Klein, told MailOnline: ‘He did what he had to do to take care of his family,’ said the lawyer, adding that as an undocumented immigrant, Dario’s mother did not have access to top-notch medical care in the US.

‘This young man is a hero,’ Klein said. ‘This kid is everything we want from someone who wants to come to the United States… he is the reason why we have the Statue of Liberty.’ 

Tale as old as time: Dario's parents, pictured with him as a boy, emigrated to the US when he was 2 and only told him they were undocumented when he started taking college courses 

Tale as old as time: Dario's parents, pictured with him as a boy, emigrated to the US when he was 2 and only told him they were undocumented when he started taking college courses 

Any immigrants with pending cases need permission to go abroad, which is not difficult to get eventually, if their requests are deemed valid. But those who do not wait for sometimes slow responses are considered to have voluntarily given up their effort to remain in the US.

Advocates say it should be easier for immigrants who have lived in the US for many years to get permission to travel.

But no such provisions were included in last year's immigration reform bills, and they aren't expected to be included in any executive action President Barack Obama might announce later this year.

Rocio Meneses Diaz died August 14 at the age of 41 at her oldest brother's house in the central state of Guanajuato. Guerrero's 16-year-old brother also was by her side. 

As a US-born citizen, he is allowed to travel freely. Their father, a building contractor in the US illegally, stayed behind at the family's Long Beach home with their 9-year-old sister.

Guerrero says he regrets his rash decision most of all because he thinks his mother would have been happier living her final days in Southern California with her husband and children, 'but then we still had hope — and if we delayed that treatment any longer because of immigration issues, I don't think I would have been able to forgive myself.'

Guerrero's parents had kept his immigration status secret for years. They came clean only when he began taking community-college engineering classes while still in high school, and the Social Security number his parents submitted bounced back.

Before her death, Guerrero's mom opened up about the past and her reasons for leaving Mexico: Her father had been kidnapped twice; her father-in-law and other relatives faced extortion; armed thieves broke into her clothing and jewelry store, holding a knife to her stomach.

Guerrero recorded her stories and her struggle with kidney cancer, hoping to turn it into a documentary back at school.

Instead, he's passing time in a room next to a garage just big enough to fit his twin bed and bureau. A picture of his mother and a single rose hang above the bed. 

His grandparents rent out the nearest bathroom during weekends for a pop-up street market. Guerrero sees his cousins after they get off work, and 'writes poetry and stuff' at night.

Former Harvard lecturer Eoin Cannon, who taught history to Guerrero, described him as 'one of the most thoughtful and creative and original students that I had the pleasure of teaching,' and 'an exceptional writer.' 

Guerrero tackled homelessness in a student film, and later co-produced A Dream Deferred - a documentary about other immigrants like himself at Harvard. 

Impossible choice: Guerrero could have waited for a special authorization to travel abroad with his mother, but the process was taking a long time - the one thing his dying parent did not have 

Impossible choice: Guerrero could have waited for a special authorization to travel abroad with his mother, but the process was taking a long time - the one thing his dying parent did not have 

All in vain: Mrs Meneses Diaz, seen in a picture behind Dario, passed away in August, and when her son tried to re-enter the US, he was turned back 

All in vain: Mrs Meneses Diaz, seen in a picture behind Dario, passed away in August, and when her son tried to re-enter the US, he was turned back 

'He's as American as anyone I know,' Cannon said. 'The law needs to sort of recognize that and have a mechanism for accounting for that ... For the law not to be able to handle his kind of case is hurting America.'

Dario's harrowing tale has drawn media attention on both sides of the US-Mexico border. The Spanish-language Noticias Telemundo aired a segment about the Harvard student's ordeal, which included an emotional interview with the Harvard junior.  

Guerrero says it's been liberating to have no term-paper deadlines to worry about, but the lack of a routine keeps him edgy. He watches his back when he ventures outside. Cartels have moved in, extorting neighborhood businesses. Weeks ago, a relative was mugged and shot in the stomach.

Harvard has been supportive, granting him leave and helping him find sympathetic ears in Washington, including Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat. Guerrero now talks about when he'll return, not if.

But when asked what's hardest about being stuck in Mexico, he loses his bravado and his voice drops to a whisper: 'That I don't have a mom anymore.'

Asked about what might happen to Dario upon his return to the US, Alan Klein said he does not believe the high-achieving student with a spotless record and a baby on the way would face deportation, especially with congressional midterm elections right around the corner. 

Mr Klein pointed out that in Dario’s case, immigration officials did do the right thing.