Washington – A couple from Venezuela was arrested by federal immigration agents this week and charged with an illegal misdemeanor, more than two years after they arrived at the southern American border.
The timing of arrests and accusations is unusual and reflects the aggressive migration tactics that are getting more. The couple was granted temporary protection from deportation, while asylum claims were decided.
The defenders of the spouses say it is the first time that they saw such a case, as the migrants were charged with illegal entry after a long period of truth. They say that the issue may put a legal precedent and may affect thousands of other immigrants who entered the United States illegally but have been granted legal protection. These people are registered with the federal government, and therefore their place is known to the authorities.
The couple – Cesar, 27, and Norlia, 34, requested that they be identified through their middle names for fear of the repercussions of the Venezuelan government and anxiety about their outstanding claims.
“This is worse than dictatorship,” said Gregorio, 51, who also asked to be recognized by his middle name because of the suspended asylum demand. “if [Cesar] He made a mistake, then he must pay for it. But this issue is unfair. ”
Cesar and Norlia are held by the American Marshall service in Washington, DC
Cesar and Norlia fled Venezuela with Gregorio and the other extended family members. Gregorio said they were persecuted because of their support for the opposition party in Venezuela. Gregorio worked as a security guard for opposition members. Cesar was in the army and wanted to take off, but he was afraid of imprisonment.
She plans to apply for asylum, and the family has been packed across Central America and Mexico before going into Rio Grande and arrived at the American border in 2022. They illegally entered near El Baso and went to the border patrol agents, who treated them and released them.
Gregorio said that every person in the family now has a temporary, protected position and the application of suspended asylum. The temporary protected situation allows people to establish a law and work in the United States if they face conditions – such as war or environmental disasters – would prevent safe return to their homelands.
The search for asylum is legally right under federal and international law, regardless of how a person has reached the American soil. However, the Trump administration began a group deportation campaign and stripped some immigrants from their legal protection along the way.
The couple and their three children, between the ages of 12, 9 and 4, settled in southeast Washington, where they found jobs that connect food and home management.
On Monday, they were returning home from working at about 1:30 pm when the Federal agents arrested them in a non -special gray -wheel drive vehicle.
In a video clip of the scene taken by the eldest son, a barking dog can be heard and crying in the background where the agents were detained and put him in SUVs.
“We did not do anything!” The boy screams in English.
“Illegal entry”, one of the agents tells the family in Spanish, adding that they have an arrest warrant.
Children were not detained and they were allowed to stay with Norielia’s sister, who was at home at the time.
“Thank God [the extended family] Gregorio said: “He is here.” “Imagine if these children had left alone? They separated you from your family for no reason.”
Criminal complaints were submitted to the couple on February 27 at the American District Court of the Western Region in Texas, according to the documents. Complaints state that Cesar and Norlia intentionally entered the United States “about 1.22 miles to the west from the Paso del Norte entry port” on October 13, 2022.
The search for court records did not find any other criminal charges linked to Cesar and Norelia.
Living in the United States without legal status is a civil crime, not a crime. But improper entry is a criminal law according to Immigration and Nationality Law From 1952. convicted or imprisoned can be fined for six months. Subsequent crime is a felony and can lead to two years of prison.
The Trump administration has relied on the statute of implementing the “zero tolerance” policy that led to the separation of thousands of children from their parents on the southern border. Parents were accused of illegal entry and their detention after their arrest entering the United States, while children were placed separately in the federal nursery and adopting care.
Amy Fischer, Director of Refugee Rights and Immigrant Rights at Amnesty International, who helps in the couple’s case, said that she has heard other defenders for some cases since Trump has returned to the position of people who suffer from suspended asylum claims or temporary legal protection held by immigration agents. Fischer said she expects to see more people targeted for deportation who have active protection in the coming weeks and months.
But Cesar and Norlia, Fischer, said, unprecedented.
“Everyone is very concerned about this,” she said. “We really see it as the first of this type of case.”
During a hearing in the Federal Provincial Court on Wednesday afternoon, the couple appeared in the video in Orange’s Elysat.
Megan McFaden, a federal government lawyer, argued that Cesar and Nahillia could be the risk of flight and must be kept. She said that when they were released on the border, the agents ordered them to report immigration and customs in the United States within 60 days, but they did not. She also indicated that asylum claims were submitted earlier this month, “after” the exemplary deadline for one year.
Makfadin said that ICE prepared an administrative note and was ready to transfer them to civil seizure as soon as they were released from the criminal custody.
I told the General defender Tezira Abe Judge C. Michael Harvey said that Cesar and Nahillia submitted asylum claims a week after federal officials announced that TPS will end. They had no knowledge of the government’s criminal complaint until they were arrested.
Abe said that the government acted as if the husband made a background to search for asylum, but “it is not so simple.”
At some point, Mkfadin said she was not aware that the couple had papers confirming TPS. “This is new information for me,” I told Harvey.
It is not convinced that Cesar and Norlia were dangerous to flying, Harvey ordered their release from reservation, although they are still facing criminal charges.
“I was confused because the government’s knowledge of what was going on here,” Harvey said. But he issued a warning: “I have no control over what the ice does.”
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