Thread: Manitowoc man deported today

Manitowoc man deported today

Wife 'destroyed' by decision

10:19 AM, Mar. 23, 2012
Written by
Suzanne Weiss
Herald Times Reporter

MANITOWOC — Jaime Martinez of Manitowoc, whose family and friends have been fighting his deportation, got on a bus in Chicago this morning on the first leg of his journey back to Mexico.

“He got deported this morning. We watched the bus pull away,” said his wife, Jennifer Martinez, sobbing into the phone.

She is “destroyed” by the decision, she said.

The bus was taking her husband to O’Hare airport in Chicago.

“They will not give me information as to what city they will be dropping him off at. I just know it will be somewhere on the border,” she said of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Her husband was picked up on an immigration hold about a month ago and has been detained at the Dodge County Detention Facility in Juneau.

Jennifer Martinez had little notice of the deportation.

“He called me again (Thursday) night and he said to me, ‘They cut off my phone account and they said I have 20 minutes and they’re deporting me again,’” she said.

Jaime Martinez was to be deported last week, but the family managed to obtain an emergency stay. They were not so lucky this week.

Jennifer Martinez borrowed money and a car, took the couple’s four children and left Manitowoc for Chicago at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

“He was cut up around his wrists from the handcuffs. They chained him around the hands and the feet,” she said.

All he had was a change of clothes and $40, Jennifer Martinez said.

The couple has been married for 14 years and have lived in Manitowoc since 2000. Jaime Martinez was deported in 2003 and returned to the U.S. illegally. Supporters have been arguing that the new prosecutorial discretion guidelines set forth by the White House ought to apply to Martinez because he has been a productive, law-abiding citizen who supports his wife and four children.

The ICE said in an earlier statement that his illegal entry is a felony and that they are focusing on “egregious immigration law violators, such as those who have been previously removed from the United States.”

Jennifer Martinez is worried about her husband’s safety and doesn’t know what she will do next.

Manitowoc man deported today | Herald Times Reporter | htrnews.com

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