Thread: ICE deports former Reading woman

ICE deports former Reading woman

4:59 PM, Jan. 31, 2012
Written by
Mark Curnutte

Yanelli Hernandez, 22, was deported Tuesday from the United States and now is in her native Mexico, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed.

ICE officials denied her request for a stay of removal based on mental health concerns. Hernandez, most recently of Reading, tried twice to commit suicide, said her attorney and advocates.

In a letter dated Jan. 30 to attorney Jorge Martinez, ICE Detroit field office director Rebecca J. Adducci wrote: “Your request is denied. The basis of this request is that your client cannot depart from the United States due to hardships she will face stemming from longstanding mental illness. You have provided no documentation to support this claim.”

Martinez said he received the letter via faxed email at 11:38 a.m. Tuesday. By that time, he said, Hernandez was most likely out of the United States.

Activist Macro Saavedra, an organizer with the local chapter of dreamactivist.org and friend of Hernandez’s, said shortly after noon Tuesday that he felt “extreme frustration. ... We will pursue all of the mental health concerns that this case has revealed.”

At 4 p.m. final word of her deportation arrived via email at the Enquirer from ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls in Detroit.

“Yanelli Hernandez-Serrano was removed to her native country, Mexico, today in accordance with a final order of removal from an immigration judge,” Walls wrote. “ICE has adopted common sense policies that ensure our immigration laws are enforced in a way that best enhances public safety, border security and the integrity of the immigration system.

“As part of this approach, ICE has adopted clear priorities that call for the agency's enforcement resources to be focused on the identification and removal of those that have broken criminal laws, recently crossed our border, repeatedly violated immigration law or are fugitives from immigration court.”

She had been arrested in Fairfield in April for suspicion of DUI and forgery, when she produced a Consular Identification Card issued by the Mexican government through its consulates to Mexican nationals residing outside of the country.

In her letter to Martinez, ICE’s Adducci wrote, “The removal of individuals with final orders of removal, as well as criminal aliens, is an ICE civil immigration enforcement priority. Ms. Hernandez was never lawfully present in the United States.

“An order of removal was entered in Ms. Hernandez’s case by the immigration judge on Jan. 25, 2012, at her request. Thus she is subject to a final order of removal. Further, Ms. Hernandez is a convicted criminal as she has convictions for forgery and driving under the influence.”

Her supporters were trying to locate her in Mexico, so they could wire money. She crossed illegally and alone into the United States at age 13.

Records from University Hospital given to the Enquirer Monday show that Hernandez was admitted in December 2008 for attempted suicide by cutting her left arm. Attorney Martinez’s written request for a stay detailed an attempted suicide while Hernandez was in custody at the Butler County Jail in Hamilton. Her supporters say they fear that without mental health care available in the United States that she will attempt again to end her life in Mexico.

ICE deports former Reading woman | Cincinnati.com | cincinnati.com

BC-OH--Woman Deported,131

January 31, 2012 19:55 GMT

Feds deport woman to Mexico, activists had rallied

CINCINNATI (AP) -- Federal immigration authorities have deported a 22-year-old Mexican woman from Ohio over the objections of activists who feared she could be suicidal.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports ( ICE deports former Reading woman | Cincinnati.com | cincinnati.com ) that Yanelli Hernandez was returned to her homeland Tuesday. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said her removal was ordered by an immigration judge, that she was in the country illegally and was convicted in Butler County on driving under the influence and forgery counts.

Supporters warned that she had attempted suicide twice, and immigration rights activists phoned federal offices this week to urge that she be allowed to stay.

An ICE letter denying her request to stay said there was no documentation to support claims of facing hardships from longstanding mental illness.

The woman had been in the United States since age 13.

Information from: The Cincinnati Enquirer, Enquirer.Com

WSYX ABC 6 - Ohio Columbus Local News & Headlines

Related:

This was from the 28th announcing the rally of support.

Advocates to rally on behalf of illegal alien immigrant

Police arrested Hernandez in Fairfield in April on suspicion of DUI. She admitted to calling the arresting officer “a racist pig who hates Mexicans,” her attorney said.

http://www.alipac.us/f12/advocates-r...igrant-249658/