ICE Arrests 61 Criminal Aliens

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A Bay Area man caught up in a deportation nightmare said Thursday that he was relieved to be released after being locked up for 2½ months in five different detention facilities.

But Daniel Maher of Hayward said he knows his freedom could be brief because federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are still threatening to boot him from the county over a 1994 robbery that sent him to prison for five years.

“I went out, basically, found a job, and never looked back,” the 41-year-old Maher said at a Thursday news conference. “I’ve had over 14 years of having this hung over my head, but, in reality, I’ve done everything they’ve asked.”

Maher was detained by ICE under its enforcement policy targeting “aggravated felons.” He was released Aug. 14 because the Chinese government will not provide travel documents for his deportation.

“He basically has no country,” said Maher’s attorney, Anoop Prasad, of the Asian Law Caucus. “China won’t recognize him, and the U.S. won’t either.”

Maher went back to his job Thursday as recycling director at the Ecology Center in Berkeley. Going forward, Prasad said he will continue to request that ICE exercise discretion, which would allow Maher to stay in the country, or seek a pardon from Gov. Jerry Brown.

After a certain period of time, ICE officials said it was unlawful for them to continue to hold Maher while waiting for the paperwork from China to come through.

His freedom comes with the requirement to report to ICE periodically and the threat of deportation at any time if the agency can obtain travel documents.

Maher first came to the United States from Macau, China, when he was 3 years old. He faces deportation to China, but does not know the country or the language.

“The removal order does not expire,” said ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice. “This subject still has a final deportation order ... a final removal order doesn’t have a statute of limitations.”

Maher made national news for his detention, garnering more than 3,000 signatures on a petition demanding his release and prompting protests.

ICE arrested him at his home June 2, citing a deportation order from 2000 that also fell through because of a lack of travel documents.

In 1994, Maher, then 20, was involved in an armed robbery at a San Jose auto parts store and convicted of kidnapping, robbery and firearms offenses — all felony crimes.

In the past decade, however, Maher turned his life around. He made a career in recycling after prison, rising through the ranks to become a recycling director.

He has not committed a crime since, and followed ICE procedures up until his most recent detention, and even had a routine check-in with ICE a month before his arrest.

Maher had been in custody for a little over 70 days. The Sacramento County jail he was released from was his fifth detention facility since he was taken in.

Prasad said his client couldn’t believe it when he was released.

“I think he was a little bit stunned,” said Prasad, who picked him up from the ICE office. “One minute he’d been in detention, 30 minutes later we were sitting in a coffee shop.”

Bay Area man released by ICE but still faces deportation - SFGate

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