'Stay' denied for New Paltz man facing deportation

4:56 p.m. ET March 7, 2017 | Updated 7:50 p.m. ET March 7, 2017


(Photo: Courtesy photo/Tommy Guerrero)

A legal request to halt a 37-year-old New Paltz man's deportation proceedings was denied, according to the man's family.

Joel Guerrero, a native of the Dominican Republic, is fighting a six-year-old deportation order, said his brother Tommy Guerrero, who provided the Poughkeepsie Journal with some of Joel Guerrero's legal records.

Joel Guerrero, who came to the U.S. as a legal permanent resident when he was 17, was detained in late February during a biannual check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Manhattan, Tommy Guerrero said.

"ICE reports that he (Joel) has a felony drug charge," Tommy Guerrero said.

Joel Guerrero was convicted for misdemeanor marijuana possession in 2003 or 2004, his brother said. But the family is disputing the felony conviction and is working on obtaining "appropriate documentation from the state in which the charge was issued."

The removal order was first issued in January 2011, after Joel Guerrero failed to appear at an immigration hearing, according to legal records. Attorney Jaime Castiblanco filed a motion on Joel Guerrero's behalf March 2, requesting that the court reconsider a motion (filed in June 2014) to re-open his case. The lawyer also requested a "stay" of the deportation order.
The stay was denied on Monday, Tommy Guerrero said.

Joel Guerrero's green card was first confiscated about a decade ago when he returned to the U.S. from a vacation to the Dominican Republic, following the marijuana conviction, Tommy Guerrero added. "He was given sort of supervision … he had to go check in with ICE every six months or so.”

The family says Joel Guerrero has been regularly checking in with ICE and didn't have any issue until late February.

Joel Guerrero is "gainfully employed" as a carpenter with a construction company and was recently married to a U.S. citizen, who is six months pregnant with the couple's first child, Tommy Guerrero said. His wife "has submitted a petition for an alien spouse and if that's approved, he can come back."

The family is still waiting to hear about the outcome of Castiblanco's motion to reconsider Joel Guerrero's case.

ICE did not return the Journal's request for comment.

But in a statement issued to the Gothamist, an ICE spokeswoman said that "Guerrero has a felony conviction for possession with intent to manufacture, sell, or deliver a schedule VI controlled substance (marijuana or a synthetic equivalent)."

Joel Guerrero is currently being held at the Hudson County Correctional Facility in New Jersey, according to the ICE online detainee lookup.

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/s...tion/98858570/