Lawyers for an illegal immigrant deported hours before his senior prom filed a stay of request Monday to try and get him back into the country.
Diego Ismael Puma Macancela, a 19-year-old New York high school student, was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents the day of his senior prom, reports the Washington Post.
Now, his lawyers and New York representatives are fighting for him to remain in the United States for one more year. In the stay of removal, Puma Macancela’s lawyers asked that he be able to stay to complete the rest of high school and to become a certified auto mechanic. They argued that it’s not an unreasonable request, given that Puma Macancela’s only crime was to come to America illegally.
New York Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey also joined in to ask the Puma Macancela be able to stay, as he was brought to America as a young child against his will.
“While Diego’s case is of the utmost importance to me, his removal proceedings speak to a larger issue emerging in our country. Increased enforcement action of non-violent offenders, especially targeted at children like Diego, have a chilling effect on the critical relationships between immigrant communities and law enforcement which will make us less safe,” Lowey wrote in a Friday letter.
ICE arrested Puma Macancela after an immigration judge issued a final order of removal Nov. 16, 2016, spokeswoman Rachael Young Yow said. Macancela is currently at a detention facility in New Jersey, while his mother, who was also taken into custody by ICE, remains in an Orange County one.
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