DACA recipient held in immigration detention

By Jason Buch November 13, 2017

Immigration activists are calling for the release of a 20-year-old with a prosthetic leg who’s a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that provides some young immigrants work permits but is being held in a detention center.

Felipe Abonza Lopez, 20, is being held in an immigration detention facility in Pearsall. In a letter from the detention center distributed by the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, Abonza wrote that he’s in pain because he isn’t receiving receiving medical treatment.

Border Patrol agents stopped Abonza and four other people, two from Mexico and two from Honduras, near Uvalde on Oct. 12. In a statement, the agency said the four others were in the country illegally and they were arrested along with Abonza “during the course of a human smuggling investigation.”

Two were deported, one was charged with illegal reentry and Abonza and another were given notices to appear in immigration court for deportation proceedings. No one was charged with human smuggling.

At least two of the people in the vehicle were Abonza’s cousins, said Amy Fischer, the RAICES policy director.

In his letter, Abonza, who lives in San Marcos and has been in the U.S. since he was 5 years old, said he sleeps with his prosthetic leg next to him out of fear of having it stolen and was mocked by detention center personnel. Abonza lost his leg as a child, according to RAICES.

He wrote that he suffers from pain because of screws in his leg, but medical staff refused to treat him and a guard said, “You can put a broomstick in his leg and he can use it to sweep.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to a request for comment made Monday morning.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program was launched in 2012 and allows some young immigrants in the country illegally to get two-year work permits in the U.S. Earlier this year, the Trump administration announced it would begin winding down the program.

The Department of Homeland Security is not accepting new applications, and after March 5, DACA recipients will not be able to renew their status.

http://www.expressnews.com/news/loca...n-12354324.php

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Border Patrol agents stopped Abonza and four other people, two from Mexico and two from Honduras, near Uvalde on Oct. 12. In a statement, the agency said the four others were in the country illegally and they were arrested along with Abonza “during the course of a human smuggling investigation.”

Two were deported, one was charged with illegal reentry and Abonza and another were given notices to appear in immigration court for deportation proceedings. No one was charged with human smuggling.

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Okay, one in the vehicle was here under DACA and the other four were illegals that had no de facto amnesty protection. Two of the four were the DACA recipient's cousins. Certainly sounds like a smuggling incident to me.