Long Island construction worker Wilfredis Ayala was in immigration custody in Alabama last fall when President Obama announced that parents of U.S. citizens could get work permits and temporary permission to stay in America.
Ayala, whose 5-year-old son Justin was born in the U.S., was released and on a bus home to Inwood, L.I. just weeks later because he could qualify for the program.
“I was so happy to go outside and breathe clean air. My wife was so happy, all of my family,” said Ayala, 29.
However, the Salvadoran immigrant, and an estimated 5.2 million others like him, are now in limbo.
Last month, a federal judge in Texas considering a constitutional challenge from 26 states temporarily blocked the rollout of Obama’s Deferred Action for Parental Accountability, or DAPA, program and the expansion of a similar initiative for young people who came to the U.S. illegally or overstayed visas as kids.
The Obama administration is appealing the decision, and Judge Andrew Hanen has said he will not make any further rulings until after a March 19 hearing.
In an emergency motion last week, the U.S. Department of Justice asked the federal Court of Appeals 5th Circuit to allow immigration officials to launch the program now instead of waiting until the issue is resolved in court.
In the meantime, immigrants and advocacy groups are struggling to deal with the delay. Many supporters are trying to convince people to stay calm and positive, and urging them to keep working to get their paperwork in order so they can apply if the stay is lifted.
In the days after Hanen’s ruling, the Mexican Consulate in New York tweeted in Spanish, “Don’t panic, the suspension of expanded #DACA and #DAPA isn’t permanent.”
Still, many worry they could be deported before the program is in place.
Obama said in a televised town hall meeting that immigrants who qualify for his pending initiatives shouldn’t be removed from the country as Immigration and Customs Enforcement focuses on criminals and recent border crossers. However, lawyers across the country have reported that ICE field officers told them their clients no longer qualified for a deportation reprieve following Hanen’s decision, the American Immigration Lawyers Association said in a Feb. 27 memo.
After Hanen’s injunction, ICE officers took down posters about deferred action hanging in detention centers and stopped using a screening checklist about the programs, said agency spokesman Luis Martinez. Still, ICE continues to follow deportation priorities set out by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson in a memo released the day Obama announced his initiatives, he said. The memo tells ICE officers that immigrants who are not a “threat to national security, border security, or public safety” also are not a priority for deportation.
Wilfredis Ayala, a Long Island construction worker and undocumented immigrant whose future is now in limbo following a Texas judge's ruling that temporarily blocks President Obama's Deferred Action for Parental Accountability
Wilfredis Ayala, a Long Island construction worker and undocumented immigrant whose future is now in limbo following a Texas judge's ruling that temporarily blocks President Obama's Deferred Action for Parental Accountability
That doesn’t calm everyone’s fears — and the memo itself reveals some gray areas.
“Immigration officers and attorneys may pursue removal of an alien not identified as a priority herein, provided, in the judgment of an ICE Field Office Director, removing such an alien would serve an important federal interest,” it reads.
Ayala said he is worried about his future.
“What’s going to happen with me?” he asked.
Immigration officials first detained Ayala in February 2014 after he took a shortcut through his neighborhood and was arrested for trespassing, said his lawyer, Bryan Johnson. At first, ICE declined Johnson’s request to stop Ayala’s deportation — even though he seemed to be a candidate for release under the agency’s own guidelines, the lawyer said.
Ayala spent 10 months in immigration custody.
“He held out for his kid, even though there was little hope on the horizon,” said Johnson.
Everything changed after Obama announced his new deferred action program — and Johnson sent ICE evidence that Ayala would be eligible.
“It really shows why DAPA was necessary in the first place,” said Johnson. “There was an uneven application of the policy, and DAPA makes it even.”
At an appointment last week, ICE officials told Ayala to report back in seven months.
Johnson and his client are both hoping he will be able to apply for deferred action before then.
Source: New York Daily News
