Man says US denied entry visa to get his wife’s body after Nevada crash

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A husband is both grieving and frustrated after he says the United States denied him entry to the country to settle his wife’s affairs following her death in Nevada. 

Gloria Vega Nava, 41, died of injuries she suffered in a car crash over the Fourth of July holiday, according to the Clark County Coroner’s Office. 

Her husband, Evaristo Vega, lives in Tijuana, Mexico.

“She was everything to us. She was everything to us. She basically became the head of the family, you know?” Vega said. 

The crash happened on Saturday, July 5, near Moapa. Vega learned that his wife and another person in the vehicle were seriously hurt. He said she worked at a warehouse in Las Vegas. 

“She was in a bad condition. She suffered a very bad accident and very bad injury on the brain,” he said.

The Clark County Coroner’s Office confirmed to Nexstar’s KLAS that Vega Nava died three days after the crash at a local hospital. Details on the manner and cause of death were pending.

Evaristo Vega’s next step is to get his wife’s body out of the Clark County Coroner’s Office for a burial. The problem is he can’t cross the border. 

Vega self-deported from the United States in 2017 to Mexico and was waiting for a 10-year ban to be over before he could start the process of applying to enter. He was only two years away. 

“I was trying to do anything. Anything to go see her, to be with my kids, you know? I wasn’t trying to do anything illegal,” he said. 

Vega said his application for an emergency visa through the U.S. Embassy in Tijuana was denied.

For now, he says all he can do is pray the embassy changes its mind as he plans to reapply.