U.S. deports paraplegic boy's stepfather, caregiver

CINCINNATI — After more than three months of legal calisthenics, a suburban Cincinnati man who had been one of two caregivers for a 6-year-old paraplegic boy was deported earlier this week to his native Dominican Republic.

Yancarlos Mendez, 27, of Springdale, Ohio, was moved from the Jena/LaSalle Detention Facility in Jena, La., and flown Tuesday to Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic about 1,700 miles southeast of his U.S. home. He had been held for three weeks in Louisiana after his transfer from another federal holding center in Mount Gilead, Ohio, north of Columbus.

"We are sad, but unfortunately we cannot do anything else," said his wife, Sandra Mendoza.

Mendoza said Wednesday she has not told her son, Ricky Solis, that his stepfather is now out of the country.