Campaign Action
Osman Enriquez, the 27-year-old dad who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while waiting to reapply for his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) protections, was released from immigration detention Thursday night. Enriquez is one of the hundreds of DACA recipients whose renewal applications were rejected due to delays that were no fault of their own. Enriquez and others were told by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that they would get a chance to reapply and to wait for more information. But ICE agents got to him first, taking him into custody on his way to work:
On Thursday morning, Enriquez’s lawyer filed a motion to expedite his hearing for release on bond; that afternoon, a bond hearing was scheduled for December 26th. But later that afternoon, Enriquez’s fiancee, Sindy, got a call from him saying he might be released. By that evening, Enriquez was home.
Enriquez was released on an order of recognizance, which allows him to remain out of detention while his deportation case continues. However, according to his lawyer, Troy Mattes, Enriquez’ case had not yet been filed in immigration court as of Thursday — even though Enriquez had already been issued a Notice to Appear in immigration court.
This leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Was Enriquez released because he was eligible to reapply for DACA — and if so, why was he detained to begin with? Or was he released because of the media coverage his case received, and the pressure from advocacy groups to release him? And in that case, are there other cases of people who went from waiting for a DACA reapplication notice to ICE detention, and even to deportation, without the media knowing?
And the overarching question: will Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell allow a vote on the DREAM Act by the end of this month so that Enriquez and 800,000 young immigrants will no longer have to live in uncertainty? Every day that passes, another 122 DACA recipients lose their protections and become vulnerable to ICE. Since Donald Trump announced the end of the program, 12,000 have fallen out of status. “Enriquez already fell into a bureaucratic nightmare,” said an editorial from Pennsylvania’s LancasterOnline.com. “More such nightmares await DACA recipients whose statuses are in limbo unless Congress acts—and soon."
Congress has a historic opportunity to finally pass the DREAM Act by the end of the year, and it’s legislation that is supported by the vast majority of Americans. According to recent Marist polling, 81 percent of Americans support letting undocumented immigrant youth stay. And if Speaker Ryan and Senator McConnell showed some basic human decency for once and gave the DREAM Act the same priority they’ve given their tax scam legislation, it could pass with bipartisan support. “We urge our elected officials in Washington to work on a broader DACA fix,” urged LancasterOnline.com:
U.S. Rep. Pat Meehan, who represents a portion of Lancaster County, joined 33 other Republican U.S. House members in signing a recent letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan calling for legislation “to protect DACA recipients before the holidays.”
Other GOP signatories from Pennsylvania included Reps. Ryan Costello, Charlie Dent and Brian Fitzpatrick, whose congressional districts are close to one of our own, the 16th.
As the lawmakers wrote, DACA recipients are “contributing members of our communities and our economy. For many, this is the only country they have ever known. They are American in every way but their immigration status.”
They noted that business leaders, university officials and civic leaders alike support a permanent DACA fix. DACA recipients represent an enormous pool of trained and educated talent that the U.S. shouldn’t want to lose.
“While we are relieved that Osman is now home with his family, he should never have been held in jail in the first place,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of immigrant rights group America’s Voice. “Unless and until Congress does its job and passes the Dream Act, we will continue to see more young Americans arrested, detained and exposed to deportation. The moment of truth is at hand.” Call your member of Congress today and remind them that to vote on a spending bill which does not include a DREAM Act is to vote for the deportation of Dreamers.