USA arrests Mexican with protected status

Mark Rosenbaum, one of Ramirez’s lawyers, says the government’s claim that Ramirez admitted to being in a gang is false. The government claims Ramirez was arrested “based on his admitted gang affiliation and risk to public safety”. Under DACA, Ramirez was authorized by the Obama administration in 2014 to live and work in the U.S. His DACA card was renewed in 2016.

But “when Mr. Ramirez’s counsel called the hotline, he was provided no assistance in remedying the mistake that had been made by the arresting ICE agents”, the complaint states. Last week’s arrests included immigrants whose only offense was an immigration violation.

Now lawmakers are stepping in to rally on behalf of Daniel Ramirez Medina, who was accepted in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in 2014 and received a renewal previous year.

His attorneys argue Ramirez is being “presently detained without justification” and that he presents “no threat to national security or public safety”. Despite promises to not reveal the immigration status of people reporting crimes, undocumented people and others in the immigrant community are likely to be wary of interacting with authorities. Ramirez’ father, the target of the arrest, has been deported at least 8 times previously and has also served time in prison in Washington State for drug trafficking. “The statement issued tonight by Ms. Richeson of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is inaccurate”, Rosenbaum said. “Those persons will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and, when appropriate, arrested by ICE”, the agency said.

“You can see that there are words that have been erased”.

“They confirmed he had no criminal history, and it was at that point they continued to detain him, and that’s where it starts getting problematic”, said Cortes.

He said the government has botched the case from its initial arrest up through now, with Mr. Ramirez still in custody and awaiting a deportation hearing.

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“The thing about this case is Daniel has been approved for DACA status twice, so he has applied and been approved, gone through all the checks and been approved twice”, Jayapal continued. He said that he would file a response on behalf of Ramirez before 5 p.m. Thursday.

He has a job, a young son and no criminal record.

Ethan Dettmer, a partner in the law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, and one of the lawyers representing Ramirez, said that he was not aware of any other immigrant under the protection of DACA who had been arrested or detained earlier.

“When questioned by ICE officers, Petitioner [Ramirez] answered that he was born in Mexico and answered “yes” to the question whether he was “illegally” in the United States”. It allows young people who were brought into the country illegally as children to stay and obtain work permits.

Pantoja, of the Northwest Detention Center Resistance, said it is an injustice that Ramirez Medina is being punished for an action his parents took for him as a small child. The Homeland Security Department said around 1,500 had the status removed because of criminal convictions or gang affiliations.

Trump told a news conference Thursday that he meant to “deal with DACA with heart”.

Asked about the DACA program at a news conference Thursday, Trump said, “We’re going to show great heart”.