A Whitehorse family is being forced to go back to Mexico, even though they say returning to their home country could mean risking their lives.

Four years after arriving in the country, the Ramos family's final attempt to stay in Canada has been denied by federal immigration and border officials.

Ricardo Ramos, his wife, Raquel, and five of their six children — including one who was born in Canada — are scheduled to fly back to Mexico this weekend after it was ruled their situation is not dangerous enough to qualify as refugees.

It was 2007 when the patriarch of the family says he witnessed a gang fight near his home in the León region of the country.

Criminals fought with guns, knives and rocks, hurting anyone who got in their way, including innocent bystanders.

Ramos said those responsible blended in with the crowd and were able to evade police.

After Ramos told police what he saw, he says, gang members threatened him and his family.

"They told me, ‘You are dead. We will kill you,'” he told the Star last week from the family's Riverdale home, drawing his finger slowly across his throat.

Gangs in the area are incredibly violent, Ramos said. They kill anyone they want, sometimes beheading them, for no reason other than to "prove to the other gangs they are strong.”

Before fleeing to Montreal, the family members, including the children, were threatened and attacked many times, Ramos said.

"I don't know what will happen if I go back.”

Canadian Foreign Affairs has issued warnings to Canadians looking to travel to Mexico because of "a deteriorating security situation in many parts of the country.”

After six months in Montreal, the family moved to Whitehorse, where they have lived ever since.

After their original refugee claim was denied, the family applied to stay in the country under humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

That application was again denied, leaving the family with no other choice but to return to Mexico or risk deportation.

In an e-mail to the Star, Citizenship and Immigration Canada said that "due to privacy laws, we are not able to provide details of individual cases without a signed privacy waiver.”

The e-mail goes on to say that the Humanitarian and Compassionate (H&C) provision is meant "to provide the flexibility to approve deserving cases not anticipated in the legislation. H&C relief is both exceptional and discretionary, and not a basic right."

Yukon MP Ryan Leef said this week his office is aware of the Ramos' situation, but there is nothing he can do to stop the Canada Border Services Agency's (CBSA) removal process.

"The minister‘s office and the MP's office stays right out of those things. We can't be seen to be interfering with investigations and decisions,” he said.

This is the first case Leef can remember of a family being removed from the territory, he said.

In four years, the Ramos family has built a life here, becoming part of the community, working and paying taxes

The children, who range in age from five months to 24 years, have gone to school, made good friends and forged lasting relationships.

The two eldest sons have gotten married.

Ricardo Jr., 24, married his wife, Tamara, a Canadian citizen, last May. This gave the couple enough time to fill out the required paperwork for him to be declared a resident.

That means when the family leaves for Mexico, he will be staying here.

"My husband is going to be absolutely devastated. He is the oldest of all six, he has never spent a day without his family around him,” Tamara said.

"The family that I just got is going to be gone, it's one of the hardest things that has ever happened.”

Twenty-three-year-old Cornelio Ramos married his wife, Rachel, last June.

Neither of them are Canadian citizens, so for now the couple will have to live in separate countries while Rachel works from Canada to try to help her husband return.

"It's been hard, it bothers me a lot,” she said.

Leef said waiting years for a decision to be made regarding someone's refugee status is fairly common.

"I think that partly reflects the volume and the backlog,” he said.

"But I think it also partly reflects the level of scrutiny that the investigators put into these kind of things to make sure we don't make a quick and rash decision.”

The youngest Ramos — baby Joana —was born five months ago.

That makes her a Canadian citizen.

Leef said having a baby in Canada does not affect the decision-making process.

"If there were an avenue where people knew the government was sympathetic to that kind of situation, people would unfortunately come to our country, have children and subvert the whole process,” he said.

The MP was quick to add that he's not saying that's what happened in this case.

In a small community like Whitehorse, where people are so close, it can be difficult for some to understand why an exception can't be made, Leef said.

"But when we broaden that across Canada, there are literally thousands and thousands of people in similar situations...you make an exemption for the Yukon, that just paints you into a corner for the rest of Canada.”

Leef said by not running or hiding or trying to avoid the process, the family is making a good case for eventually being accepted back to Canada through a different program.

But they will have to apply from Mexico.

"It seems to me that they're doing everything properly; clearly, they're disappointed and we understand that,” he said.

"Whatever they do to reapply to the Yukon or into Canada under a different program, if we're asked we're certainly willing to help them out with that.

"It's not my job to complete paperwork for them and those kind of things. What I would do is make sure that the paperwork and the programs they were applying under went in the right direction.”

Leef said he believes the family made a valuable contribution to Whitehorse while they were here.

"From what I'm hearing and what I'm seeing, in terms of both work references and in terms of their status in the community, these are the kind of people that the Yukon would welcome.”