Illegal immigrant pizza worker’s deportation temporarily blocked by judge’s ruling
- by Kelli Lowe
- in Global Media
- — Jun 13, 2018
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, who on Friday called for an investigation into ICE conduct, wrote a letter to the field director for the Department of Homeland Security in support of an application for a stay of removal, and requested that Villavicencio be released from ICE custody.
"Please do the right thing with my husband for my family".
Cuomo said that Villavicencio has been a resident of New York City for over 10 years, and that "he is a working father, a taxpayer, and the primary provider for his US citizen wife and two daughters, one of whom suffers from a serious medical condition".
A representative at the base told HuffPost that a routine background check was performed on him, which Villavicencio consented to.
"It is inhumane, ' said Chica during a telephone interview". He is a father who is working for his daughters.
Cuomo said on Thursday that he spoke by phone with Chica to express his "deep frustration with the federal government's assault on New York's immigrant families". "Now, I'm alone with two kids".
"Although we are disappointed that Pablo will remained detained, today's stay is a victory for him and his family, and also for due process and the fair administration of justice", Gregory Copeland, Supervising Attorney of the Immigration Law Unit at The Legal Aid Society, said in a statement. He got married to Sandra Chica, a US citizen, eight years ago and had filed an application for citizenship.
Villavicencio, who applied for a green card earlier this year, was born in Ecuador and lives in Hempstead, Long Island with his wife and two young daughters.
Chica and the two girls attended a news conference in front of the army base Wednesday along with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and City Councilman Justin Brannan. The check revealed an active ICE warrant on file, Fort Hamilton said.
A pizza deliveryman whose detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers sparked outrage can stay in the country - at least until July 20. The voluntary departure order then "became a final order of removal", she said.
The day he was detained, Villavicencio was trying to deliver an order to the Fort Hamilton Army base in Brooklyn.
"What prompted them to call ICE?" she asked. "And we need communities to come together to see that Pablo is one of many, and force them to stop tearing families apart".
Instead, he got married and started a family in NY - where local laws somewhat shield undocumented immigrants from federal authorities, even as President Donald Trump's administration detains thousands of people it accuses of entering the United States illegally.
In a last-ditch attempt to keep him in the country, the lawyers asked a federal judge to temporarily block the deportation over the weekend.
