Trump’s racist policy separates another Family!

June 25, 2018 by Jose Perez

Syracuse business owner and father, here for 15 years, has been deported to Guatemala

Updated Jun 22; Posted Jun 22

By Marnie Eisenstadtmeisenstadt@syracuse.com ,
syracuse.com

Syracuse, N.Y. — Lorenzo Ramos, a Syracuse husband, father and business owner who has been in the country for 15 years, has been deported to Guatemala.
He was put on a plane Thursday, his lawyer said.
Emergency court requests, a petition with more than 13,000 signatures and letters signed by 500 people in Syracuse did not sway immigration officials. Ramos entered the country, illegally, 15 years ago to escape escalating violence in his native country.
“What happened yesterday was something that we have not seen in years,” said Ramos’ lawyer, Jose Perez. Perez counseled Ramos to seek sanctuary in a church instead of showing up for an unscheduled immigration check-in because he was concerned that the father and business owner would be detained.
Ramos was handcuffed and taken to detention at that June 8 appointment in Buffalo. Immigration officials had decided not renew an order, called a stay of deportation, that allowed him to stay in the country.
Last week, Perez filed an emergency petition to stay Ramos’ deportation, along with an application for a different waiver that would allow Ramos to stay in the U.S. because he is married to a U.S. citizen. In the past, undocumented immigrants were allowed to stay as those requests were processed, Perez said.
Perez said he was shocked that Ramos was deported. Ramos’ wife, Melanie, does not speak Spanish and neither do the couple’s sons, who are 9 and 13. The older child is not Ramos’ biological son, but he is the only father the child has ever known, Melanie Ramos said.
Ramos, who had been given a temporary social security number last year, had been paying taxes. He was picked up by immigration in 2009, and had been working with authorities since then, checking in regularly and filing the required paperwork. He applied for asylum in 2010 because he was fleeing violence; his plea was denied, but he was allowed to stay. That was the last time Ramos saw a judge.
Though he is married to a U.S. citizen, because he entered the country illegally, immigration law requires him to leave for a decade before his wife can petition for him to stay. The way around that requirement is to get asylum, which Ramos was denied, or apply for a waiver of that requirement. His lawyer is now doing that on his behalf.
Ramos owns a home on the North Side with his wife. She also works, but she is uncertain how she will pay the bills without her husband’s income.
Melanie Ramos said she is still hopeful that her husband will be able to return.

“Our story is not over,” she said in an update on the page for the petition.
Marnie Eisenstadt writes about people, life and culture in Central New York.

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