A Mexican man brought to the US as a child who was arrested and held for more than six weeks despite being protected under an Obama-era program for immigrants has been released.
Daniel Ramirez Medina, a 24-year-old “Dreamer” living near Seattle in Washington state, was ordered released on bond by a judge on Tuesday, his lawyers said.
Immigration agents detained Ramirez, who arrived in the United States when he was seven, in February even though his authorization under the so-called DACA program was still valid.
His case is one of several that have advocacy groups worried about how President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants will affect people protected under the DACA order signed by former president Barack Obama in 2012.
DACA, which stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, defers deportation for undocumented immigrants brought into the country as children, allowing them to live and work in the United States.
Some 750,000 young people, known as “Dreamers,” have signed up for the program.
In the case of Ramirez, immigration agents swept into his home to pick up his father as part of a separate investigation, and later claimed that Ramirez had confessed to belonging to a street gang.
Ramirez, who has no criminal record, denied the charges.
At a hearing Tuesday, Judge John Odell in Seattle released him on $15,000 bond pending further proceedings.
“Like the three-quarters of a million Dreamers in this country, Daniel was brought to the United States as a child and knows no other home,” said Mark Rosenbaum, a lawyer at Public Counsel and a member of Mr. Ramirez’s legal team.
“This is an important first step toward justice for Daniel.”
Separately, the American Civil Liberties Union reported Wednesday that a 21-year-old Mexican man “with serious health issues” was being held in a detention center without his medication or wheelchair in Oregon.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement picked up Emmanuel Ayala Frutos, a Mexican DACA “Dreamer,” at his home in Portland early Sunday, said the ACLU — a leading defender of fundamental rights in the US — in a statement.
Ayala Frutos has lived in Portland since the age of six and received DACA in 2013. He was in the process of renewing his status, which had expired two weeks earlier.
Both of his legs were broken and he underwent several surgeries after a car ran into him, according to the rights group.
“Emmanuel is in pain and at serious risk of injury,” said Ian Philabaum, an immigrant rights advocate at Innovation Law Lab, in the statement.
“ICE showed up early Sunday morning, without a warrant, and tricked a struggling young man from his home by telling him they were going to talk about this DACA status.”
In February, Ayala Frutos entered a plea in Washington state for possessing and showing a butterfly knife in November, the ACLU noted.
The judge determined he was not a danger to the community. He had since completed an anger management program and attended all his court dates and required meetings, the statement said.
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