Yancarlos Mendez Perez, the caregiver and father figure of a six-year-old paraplegic boy, has won a stay of deportation from a federal appeals court. While only temporary, it could buy some precious time for Mendez Perez, who remains in federal immigration custody and faced imminent deportation:
Mendez Perez, 27, of Springdale, Ohio, is engaged to the mother of 6-year-old Ricky Solis, who was seriously injured and paralyzed from the waist down in an auto accident in February in nearby Fairfield, Ohio. Staff at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center trained him on how to care for Ricky's complex medical needs, and Mendez has helped Ricky and his mother since 2014.
Friday’s ruling is temporary. Mendez will stay in federal custody in Ohio. The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati delayed the deportation, it wrote, "in order to provide sufficient time to consider our jurisdiction, as well as the motion."
"We are very thankful they stayed through snow and processed the stay,” said attorney Nazly Mamedova. While not his biological dad, Mendez Perez has cared for six-year-old Ricky since 2014, and has been his caregiver since February, when the boy was tragically paralyzed in a car crash:
Mendez could have been deported to the Dominican Republic as early as Saturday, according to documents filed with the Sixth Circuit.
Lawyers Charleston Wang and Mamedova asked the court to postpone Mendez's deportation until the court could consider his case. The filing states that the normal course for appeal, through the federal Board of Immigration Appeals, has been closed off to Mendez.
“His attorneys refiled the appeal to ICE in Detroit as well as to federal immigration officials in Washington, D.C., on Friday.” The requests are all the more urgent following Ricky’s readmission to the hospital due to ongoing complications from his accident. “Lawyers are asking that he be allowed to come home to be with his family during Ricky's surgery and recovery.”