A 24- or 25-year-old Mexican man shot himself in the head on Sunday at his family home in the city of San Juan del Rio in Querétaro, Mexico. According to two different newspaper accounts, he had been distraught at being separated from his American wife and two sons. The man, Cruz González Chávez, was deported from the United States about five months ago, according to a friend of his, who spoke with Diario Rotativo, a local paper. González had spoken of taking his own life, the friend said.
González had been talking to his family and apparently drinking on Sunday afternoon when he got up and left without a word. The next thing the family heard was a single gunshot, according to the news accounts.
The news comes via Burro Hall, a Querétaro-based blog.
I’m working on finding out more details about the case, but this is the first such deportation-related suicide I’ve read about, though I’m sure there are more instances. It’s another potent reminder that people’s lives are at stake in this immigration game. Real people’s lives.
