Here’s yet another glaring example of this administration’s general incompetence. First, the Department of Homeland Security finally admitted that Dreamer Juan Manuel Montes did indeed have active DACA status when he was swept up and deported to Mexico in February, debunking their own spokesperson’s lie from this week that it had expired. Now, the Charlotte Observer reports that ICE told honor roll college student Sthefany Flores, a North Carolina Dreamer with active DACA status, to prepare for deportation in what eventually turned out to be the federal government’s own screw-up:
When the ICE letter first arrived, Flores thought it was an April Fool’s Day joke. Then the realization sank in. “I just sat down,” she said. “I could hear my heart in my ears, and I thought, ‘This is not possible.’ ”
Nonetheless, she was instructed to show up Wednesday at ICE offices in Charlotte with no more than 40 pounds of luggage and her passport. She says she tried to get an explanation from Homeland Security officials on why she faced possible deportation but found no one to tell her what’s going on.
Sthefany’s DACA renewal, which is valid for two years, had been approved by the federal government weeks before on March 15. Left with no answers and in fear of facing imminent deportation to a country she hadn’t called home for most of her life, “Flores’ community and school rallied to her cause.”
Byron Martinez, director of operations for Unidos We Stand, a Gastonia-based nonprofit for immigration rights, wrote Gov. Roy Cooper, Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, along with other elected officials asking them to intervene. Even Gardner-Webb [University] president Frank Bonner had cleared his Wednesday schedule to appear at the ICE meeting in her behalf.
“What does deporting Ms. Flores say about our values as Americans?” Martinez said in his letter. “(She) is the epitome of what a DACA student should be ... A young life hangs in the balance.”
Then came the “oops” from ICE. Actually, there were a couple of “oopses”:
A government official familiar with Flores’ case, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak about the situation, told the Observer that Flores’ DACA extension, which was authorized by another agency, had not appeared in ICE’s computers before the first letter, dated March 23, went out. He described DACA as the “silver bullet” that stops deportation proceedings.
Flores, who is undocumented, said Tuesday that ICE official David Kunde emailed her Monday night, apparently referring to her as “he,” and notified Flores her DACA extension had been located and that there was no need for her to make the drive to Charlotte from her Forest City home to meet with ICE Wednesday morning.
“I apologize for any inconvenience,” Kunde wrote.
Later, Flores said, Kunde called her. When she hung up, “I was just really overwhelmed,” Flores said. “I know I just looked at a wall for second and thought, ‘That just happened. This is really over now.’ ”
Of course, ICE’s claim that DACA is the “silver bullet” that stops them from sweeping up and deporting Dreamers is bullcrap, otherwise Juan Manuel Montes would be home with his family and not in Mexico right now. And Sthefany could have become the next casualty, all because immigration agents have been unshackled and out of control. "As ICE comes under increased scrutiny,” said immigrant rights leader Frank Sharry earlier this month, “people will be shocked to find how incompetent, unaccountable and rogue they are."
Meanwhile, Sthefany is exactly where she’s supposed to be: going about her life. “I’m just really relieved. Now I can go back to just worrying about my final exams,” she said. “The world just opened up, and I feel I have so much more time ... I will be going to classes on Wednesday instead of that meeting.”