US to target criminals in deportations N.C. SOB

November 13, 2011 6:30 pm

US to target criminals in deportations

By Anjli Raval in New York

Seventeen years after fleeing to the US to escape civil war in Guatemala, Rudolfo Mendez is fighting to avoid being deported from his home in North Carolina.

Although granted a work permit and Social Security number on arrival in 1994, his asylum application was denied after he missed a court hearing, and in 1997 Mr Mendez was issued with a deportation order. “When the order was handed to me, I thought about going back to Guatemala but the situation was still dangerous,â€