Lake Geneva man with 4 U.S. born children faces deportation after traffic court arres
Lake Geneva man with 4 U.S. born children faces deportation after traffic court arrest
May 8, 2018
Jesse Garza, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A petition has been launched calling for the release of a Lake Geneva man facing deportation after being arrested while paying a traffic ticket.
Eduardo Gualajara Castro, 46, was arrested April 25 at the Walworth County Courthouse in Elkhorn, where he went to pay the traffic ticket, according to Voces de la Frontera, an immigrant rights organization.
Castro, who is married and has four U.S.-born children, has been in the country for 30 years and has lived in Lake Geneva for 17 years, according to Voces de la Frontera Executive Director Christine Neumann-Ortiz.
He runs a small pallet business in Lake Geneva that employs three people and is currently applying for a U visa, which creates a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrant victims of crime, according to a statement from Voces.
Castro was cited for driving under the influence more than 12 years ago — for which he paid a fine and attended required classes — and has never had any other encounters with law enforcement except a ticket for driving without a license, according to the statement.
Through Voces, his family declined to provide additional details about his case pending legal consultation, and a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not return a message from the Journal Sentinel Tuesday afternoon.
The online petition to ICE Louisiana Field Office Director David D. Rivera urges him to use his administrative power to release Castro from ICE detention in Louisiana.
His arrest is proof that ICE is deploying agents in courthouses and scouring traffic citation records searching for people in the country illegally, according to the statement from Voces.
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