Harvard student who took dying mom to Mexico finally gets visa to come home

TIJUANA, Mexico -- A Mexico-born Harvard University student who was stuck for months in his native country after crossing the border without permission is about to return to the United States.

Dario Guerrero Meneses, who was brought into the U.S. illegally at age 2, was granted a visa in Tijuana early Monday but will not be able to pick it up until midafternoon.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service had initially declared that Guerrero effectively deported himself when he crossed the border without permission with his mother, who was seeking alternative cancer treatments. She died in August.

Guerrero plans to travel to Long Beach, California, to meet with his father and two siblings. He then plans to return to Harvard next year.

When his mother's cancer treatments were failing in the U.S., Guerrero found clinics offering alternative treatments in Mexico and took his mother across the border, hoping to keep her alive.

In doing so, he knowingly broke a rule by leaving the U.S. 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.