Deported father pleads for right to live in US and watch his son grow up

A young father has described his torment at being torn from his son’s life after being deported from the US as an illegal immigrant.

Paul Ferguson, 28, says he is now forced to watch toddler Dylan grow up “on computer” during their weekly Skype sessions.

Paul, from Buncrana, Co Donegal, was expelled from San Francisco in 2011 when his only child was just six weeks old.

He has only seen his son three times since and for only a week at a time.

These precious weeks were only made possible by the “kindness” of Dylan’s American mother, who has made three trips to Ireland — most recently last Christmas — to reunite father and son. She also keeps Paul up to date with Dylan’s progress in daily texts and emails.

“We are not together anymore but I could not wish for a better mother for my son,” said Paul. She is giving me a life-line to Dylan and she is raising him to be independent, smart and strong.”

Paul emigrated for work to Perth, Australia, last October and says he pines for his son — “the light of [his] life” — every day.

However, Paul says that his is just one of many heartbreaking stories of emigrant families being “ripped apart” by deportation laws.

Paul has launched a Facebook campaign, To Reunite a Father with his Son, and has been contacted by other fathers who are suffering in silence.

“At this stage, I’m afraid I’m becoming a stranger to Dylan. When he hears my Irish accent on Skype he says ‘hello Daddy’, but it’s very difficult.”

Paul, who works as an air-conditioning installer in Perth, says he is being denied his human rights as a parent. He also says he was devastated by the American deportation system.

His dream is to be allowed to live and work in San Francisco to be near his adored child.

He says he has written letters to Irish and US politicians, including Taoiseach Enda Kenny, US president Barack Obama, and US former president Bill Clinton. He believes the Government is not doing enough to help the estimated 50,000 undocumented Irish in the US.

“In 2011, I went to the US embassy in Dublin and applied for a visa to go back to see my child as my democratic human right. I was categorically denied,” Paul said.

A US Embassy spokesman said: “We do not comment on individual cases.”