The Portland restaurant community is rallying support behind a beloved local chef and small business owner who was denied reentry to the United States after traveling to Mexico for an immigration interview last month.

Roberto Hernandez Guerrero, the chef and owner of Northeast Portland’s Reeva Cafe y Cocina a la Leña , thought he was nearing the end of a 7-year effort to obtain a green card last month when his attorney advised him to travel to Mexico for a “final interview.” But after arriving for at the U.S. Consulate General’s office in Ciudad Juárez, he was “denied reentry on the spot,” according his eldest son, Demian Hernandez.

The frustrating turn in what has already been a “costly, complex and exhausting” process leaves Hernandez Guerrero separated from his family — including

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