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Bolstered by community support, mother of 3 U.S. Citizens is granted one-year stay
Submitted by: www.americasvoice.org
Sept. 26, 2014: Marinela Martínez-Magaña—a 10 year resident of Columbus, OH with three U.S. citizen children under the age of nine—was granted a one-year stay of deportation.
After trying to do the right thing by paying a minor traffic ticket earlier this month, she became an instant target for deportation and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) demanded that she purchase a plane ticket to leave the country by September 25th. Thanks to the tireless work of immigration advocates and her attorney, Fatin Askar, Ms. Marinela was given the relief she’s been hoping for.
Said Ms. Marinela, “I want to first and foremost thank my lawyer, and everyone at America’s Voice for all the help and support you have given my family and I during this time. I would also like to lend my support for any other person who is in my position. Let’s keep fighting to prevent families from being separated!”
In addition to qualifying for ICE’s existing policy of prosecutorial discretion, Ms. Marinela meets multiple criteria that would likely qualify her for the type of executive action under consideration by the White House, including her years of residence in the United States and U.S. citizen children. Unfortunately, the President’s decision to delay has put families like Ms. Marinela’s at the mercy of ICE agents who seem unwilling to abide by the agency’s own policies.
Said Fatin Askar, Marinela’s attorney, “This is a huge victory, and we’re beyond thrilled to see ICE do the right thing by granting Marinela the relief she deserved all along. Now, she can return to her family and continue to be a contributing member of the Columbus community as she’s been doing for over ten years. We’re overjoyed with ICE’s decision, but now it’s time for the President to go ahead with broad administrative reforms to ensure this doesn’t happen to other families like Marinela’s.”
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