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发帖数: 29846 | 1 The case of an undocumented Mexican in South Carolina who is fighting
deportation with support from U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) will put the
validity of the authorities' new discretionary policy to the test.
The fate of Gabino Sánchez, 27, will be decided Tuesday at an immigration
court in Charlotte, and for Gutierrez it will shine a light on whether the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement memorandum giving priority to expelling
undocumented criminals "carries any weight."
"Gabino is an example of an immigrant who should not be deported," the
congressman told Efe.
"If the Obama administration is serious about applying the policy of
executive discretion, it should close the case of this immigrant," he said.
Sánchez came to the United States when he was 14. He settled in Ridgeland,
South Carolina, worked in gardening and construction and eventually married
and had two children.
His troubles began on Nov. 2 when police stopped him for speeding. Because
he is undocumented and did not have a driver's license - and also has a
history of fines for driving without a license - he was turned over to ICE.
If the new guidelines contained in an ICE memorandum issued last summer are
applied, Sánchez, who has no criminal record and is the father of two U.S.-
born children, should not be a candidate for deportation.
Gutierrez has accompanied Sánchez to two previous hearings at immigration
courts as part of his strategy to keep an eye on compliance with the
memorandum issued last summer by ICE Director John Morton.
In a video message filmed in Spanish and English, the congressman asks the
community for a massive turnout on Tuesday at the court in Charlotte.
"I return to Charlotte to accompany Gabino, his wife and two children to
continue fighting on behalf of immigrants, so that families are not
separated, and to say 'no' to unjust deportations," Gutierrez said in his
message.
Meanwhile more than 40 religious congregations have responded to the
congressman's call and over the past few week have urged the faithful to
turn up at the court to show their support for Sánchez.
"As a church and a community, we are suffering the separation of families.
We have faith and we pray that Gabino will come out of this victorious and
that he will set a precedent," Anibal Mercado, pastor of a church in
Charlotte, told Efe.
Gutierrez has spurred the creation of defense committees in places like the
Carolinas, New York, Maryland, Dallas, Chicago and San Francisco to identify
cases like that of Sánchez and of dreamers who face deportation.
Attorney Marty Rosenbluth, executive director at NC Immigrant Rights Project
who will represent Sánchez, will try to have the deportation order
canceled.
The only crime Gabino has committed is driving without a license, the lawyer
said, adding that on many occasion South Carolina cops used racial
profiling to pull him over.
The current government has deported a record number of more than 1 million
undocumented immigrants since 2009. |
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