A man who has spent two months in a Tucson church to avoid deportation is not getting any help from the president's new executive action on immigration, even though his attorneys say he's eligible.
Francisco Perez Cordova's situation is that even though he appears eligible to be protected from deportation under the executive order and a subsequent memo, federal officials in the Arizona district are not giving him the documentation his attorney says he should have.
The issue appears to be that Perez was already under a deportation order. It's why he entered sanctuary in September.
His supporters addressed the news media and others to say that as long as Perez has not been deported yet, he still qualifies for protection from deportation. They argue the deportation orders should be dismissed.
"The fact that the Department of Homeland Security is not quickly moving on these cases and identifying these cases where people are eligible for relief and have outstanding orders and is refusing to close those or to terminate those cases is absolutely unacceptable," his attorney, Margo Cowan, said.
"Every day when they come, they ask me, 'Dad, when you are going home? Obama already say, so why you cannot go?' They want to take me. And I tell them, 'I don't know, mijo, but it's going to be.'" Perez said.
Cowan said there likely are thousands of people in Arizona in danger of deportation though they qualify to stay in the U.S. under the president's executive action. Cowan is hoping to hear soon from Washington.
Until then, Perez remains in sanctuary.
TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now)