FREDERICK, Md. — A federal judge has issued a temporary order against US Immigration Customs Enforcement Agency to stop the deportation of 34-year-old Roxana Orellana Santos to El Salvador who entered the US illegally in 2005, but who has since become a local civil rights figure.
After her surprise arrest on January 8th at a routine appointment with her ICE case supervisor, the agency has been moving toward deporting the mother of three US citizen-children before her petitions to stay in the US had been decided by courts.
It’s a glimmer of hope for Santos in a case that has inflamed passions on both sides of the nation’s ongoing immigration debate.
“No tears from me! They need to come here legally or stay out,” wrote Facebook user Delbert N Shirley Robbins on WUSA9’s Facebook page.
Santos’ attorney said she deserves to stay in the US under a special visa granted to people who cooperate with the justice system.
Santos qualifies for a so-called U Visa because of her “courageous” efforts to uncover and reform unconstitutional practices within the Frederick County Sheriff’s Department, according to her attorney Nick Katz of CASA a Maryland-based immigrant rights advocacy group.
Santos successfully brought a US Civil Rights suit against the department after she was illegally arrested in 2009 in a case of alleged department-sanctioned racial profiling.
Negotiations are underway to settle the case. Frederick County could be liable for up to $1 million in damages, but Santos’ attorneys said she will demand policy changes as part of the settlement in an effort to protect others from racial profiling.
The Frederick County Sheriff’s department ended its practice of working with special ICE teams to identify and arrest illegal immigrants in the wake of the case and does not racially profile in any circumstance, according to spokesman Maj. Tim Clarke.
Under the temporary restraining order issued by US District Court Judge, ICE may not deport Santos between now and January 24th.
In the meantime, Santos lawyers have asked for the judge to rule that she must be allowed to stay in the US and be released from custody so that she can continue to participate in the settlement negotiations in the Civil Rights case.
Santos remains in ICE custody in a jail in Worchester County, Md.
"Far from being a flight risk or danger to the community, Ms. Orellana Santos is a responsible pillar of her community and her detention was an abuse of discretion by ICE”, attorney Nick Katz wrote in a petition on Santos’ behalf.
In the petition, Katz argued that Santos is an applicant for both a U Visa and a reconsideration of her immigration case. Neither has received a ruling from the courts.
“In the interests of justice and due process, just giving her an opportunity to be heard to challenge her removal is important,” Katz said in an interview with WUSA9 on Tuesday.
Katz called ICEs arrest of Santos on a decade-old deportation order before her all her claims have been ruled on by courts “an absolute miscarriage of justice.”
Santos owns a home in Frederick with her husband, who is an applicant for asylum. The couple are raising three elementary aged children who are US citizens and who are terrified their mother may never come home, according to Jennifer Ventura, a family friend who spoke to WUSA9 January 9th.
Santos as an 18-year-old son who “was abused, abandoned, and neglected by his father in El Salvador, enabling him to receive Special Immigrant Juvenile Status and legal permanent residency,” according to court filings.
According to her attorneys, if Santos is deported to El Salvador it is likely she will be violently abused by her father and she may be targeted by gangs who believe she has received money from her civil rights case, even though no settlement has been reached.
A spokesperson for ICE was not available to comment on the situation because of the partial government shutdown.