Pizza Guy Delivers To Army Base, Gets Nabbed By ICE
Pizza Guy Delivers To Army Base, Gets Nabbed By ICE
https://www.dailywire.com/sites/defa...?itok=9MD5hMgO
June 7, 2018
A Long Island man faces imminent deportation after he failed to provide proper identification while delivering a pizza to an army base.
Pablo Villavicencio had delivered pizzas to the Fort Hamilton army base before, but on Friday he did not have "valid Department of Defense identification," a spokesman told Buzzfeed. Villavicencio was in the country illegally from Ecuador, but was married to a U.S. citizen and had started the process to gain legal residency status in February.
When Villavicencio failed to provide the identification necessary to enter the base (he previously had been allowed to enter with just his New York City I.D., allegedly), he was directed to get a daily pass. He signed a waiver agreeing to a background check. That background check found an active ICE warrant for the deliveryman. Villavicencio had apparently agreed to leave the U.S. in 2010 but stayed, becoming an "ICE fugitive," according to agency spokeswoman Rachael Yong Yow.
"There aren’t words that can describe the drama that my daughters and I are living," his wife, Sandra Chica, told Spanish-language newspaper El Diario. "From one moment to the next, life changed for us, and all I ask is for them to not deport my husband, to give him an opportunity."
The 35-year-old pizza deliveryman lived in Hempstead, Long Island with his wife of five years and their two daughters, aged 3 and 2. He is currently sitting in jail and may be deported before his oldest daughter’s fourth birthday.
"This is torture," Villavicencio told the New York Daily News. "They have treated me like a criminal. ... Now I don’t even have a right to face a judge, to defend myself."
A GoFundMe account has been opened to assist Villavicencio and his family, and dozens of protesters showed up at Fort Hamilton demanding his release. City Councilman Justin Brannan (D-Brooklyn) also called for Villavicencio to be released, claiming the ICE agents are "tearing families apart."
"Is our city, state and nation any safer today because they took a pizza delivery guy off the streets?" he asked.
U.S. Congressman Dan Donovan (R-NY), however, sees things differently. He told NBC New York that personnel at the base did the right thing.
"This is just more insanity. Liberal activists are attacking ICE agents and military personnel for following the law in detaining an immigrant reportedly here illegally," Donovan said. "If Democrats would actually come to the table and support border security funding, then these types of incidents wouldn't happen in the future."
A spokesman for the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs also told the network affiliate that the office was looking into the situation.
President Donald Trump rode into office promising to "build a wall" and curb illegal immigration. Overall deportations were down in 2017 from 2016, the last full year President Barack Obama was in office. Those numbers, however, include individuals who were living in the U.S. and those who were apprehended on the border. Deportation of individuals residing in the country illegally increased by about 50% (from 44,000 to 61,000) under Trump in 2017*, following record-high deportations under Obama.
New York City officials told NBC the Trump administration was responsible for the 200% increase in ICE arrests in the Big Apple for illegal immigrants with no prior criminal convictions.
*This number only includes the months that Trump was president in fiscal year 2017, which ends on September 30, and doesn’t include the first 19 days of January, since Obama was still in office.
Ashe Schow is a reporter and columnist with bylines at the Federalist and the New York Observer. She also co-hosts a weekly podcast, The Snark Factor. She has previously worked for the Washington Examiner and the Heritage Foundation. She lives in Virginia with her two cats, Shadow and Charlie.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/31596...ice-ashe-schow
