Thread: Immigrant who worked undercover fights deportation

Immigrant who worked undercover fights deportation

Published January 28, 2011

NEW YORK – An Argentine restaurant owner who worked for years as an undercover informant for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a deal to gain citizenship, only to face deportation, is fighting for a reprieve once again.

Emilio Maya won a one-year stay a year ago, after U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., introduced a rare private bill requesting that the 35-year-old immigrant, who runs a restaurant in Saugerties, be granted legal status immediately.

At the time, Hinchey said he was hopeful that the year would give ICE enough time to properly review Maya's case and reach a fair decision.

Instead, despite renewed efforts by Hinchey, Maya says he has been ordered to report on Feb. 7, apparently for deportation.

"When someone puts their life on the line to protect the lives of those in this community from the scourge of drugs and gang violence they should be rewarded, not punished," Hinchey said in a prepared statement after reintroducing the bill earlier this month.

In a letter to ICE director John Morton, Hinchey also detailed Maya's years of undercover work, and described a constant stream of letters, e-mails and petitions by hundreds of area residents on Maya's behalf.

Morton has not responded to the letter. ICE refused to comment on the case.

Maya, who entered the U.S. with his sister, Analia, as visitors in the 1990s and stayed illegally, quickly became mainstays of the Hudson River town, which is in Hinchey's district. They ran a small cafe, Tango. Emilio was a volunteer firefighter, and Analia, 31, served as a Spanish-language interpreter for the local police — a contact that, in 2005, led them to ICE.

For four years, the Mayas said, they wore wires, infiltrating a prostitution ring, working in a factory that hired undocumented workers and providing information on human smuggling operations and gangs. However, instead of receiving the promised "S'' visa which could lead to permanent legal status, ICE informed them in 2009 that their information was no longer useful and they could be deported, they said.

"Emilio put his life in great danger in support of our nation and he was rewarded for this service by being arrested at gun point by one of the same ICE officers that wiretapped him as a confidential informant," Hinchey wrote in his letter to Morton.

Maya was jailed for 15 days, though he was charged with no crime and was given no explanation other than he was "being deactivated." He was released only after Hinchey phoned ICE directly. Since then, he has had to report every few months to ICE in New York City.

Analia's status has changed since she married an American and she has applied for a green card.

The Mayas story drew international attention after an Associated Press article last year.

Although they had promised ICE never to talk publicly about their work, the siblings said they turned to Hinchey, who occasionally has lunch at their cafe, out of desperation and fear.

That desperation was evident again this week, as Maya struggled with an uncertain future and mounting legal bills.

"We kept our part of the deal," Maya said. "So why should we be made to suffer like this?"

"Clearly this in one of those cases in which ICE has to take a long look and do the right thing," said the Maya's latest lawyer, Steven Goldstein, a former ICE attorney who planned to filed an appeal with the agency. "ICE has the authority and power to grant some form of relief."

ICE has given no explanation for its handling of the Maya case. ICE spokesman Brian Hale said in an e-mail "at this time ICE has nothing additional to offer on the Maya matter."

He previously said the agency couldn't discuss any case involving informants, though he explained that in general, "there has to be a significant benefit to the government" in order for informants to receive legal papers.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/01/28/im ... z1CZeNPpkj

February 8, 2011
Rep. Maurice Hinchey's HR 391 - reward for an illegal alien

Once we started to look at what Rep. Maurice Hinchey has done to date in the 112th Congress, we became curious about HR 391. Why exactly has Rep. Hinchey decided to take on the plight of this one illegal alien? Is this worth the attention of a Congressman? Is this worthy of the time and tax dollars that it costs so far?

Emilio Maya is a businessman (he owns Café Tango in Saugerties, NY), volunteer firefighter and occasional translator for the local police department. He also happens to be an illegal alien, or in other words a criminal - unless you are on the far left which would make him an undocumanted worker. Maya entered the US in 1998 under the Visa Waiver Program. He was visiting family, and the program allowed him to do so without a visa for 90 days.

He remained in the country beyond the program's initial 90 day limit. Emilio Maya was able to gain a visa from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) repeatedly, with the last being valid until April 2010. In the time that he was in the country he opened a business, married a legal immigrant from Belarus, Russia, had a child, and became entrenched in the community where he lived.

He was apprehended by fully armed immigration officials outside of his home back in 2009 in a scene that is described by Patricia Doxsey of the Daily Freeman that you would expect to see in a Sylvester Stallone movie more than on a street in Upstate New York. He was set to be deported after 20 days in a holding facility in Pennsylvania. His deportation was assured because Maya waived his rights to a review or appeal of an immigration officer’s determination of his admissibility and his right to contest any deportation action because of the terms of the Visa Waiver Program he signed over a decade earlier. ICE spokesman Michael Gilhooly reportedly said Maya was arrested for an “immigration violationâ€

I suspect there is more to this story than meets the eye. We'll never know the whole truth because ICE has elected to remain mute on the situation surrounding this specific case. We're only hearing one side of the story, and that is the side of an illegal alien criminal who has broken the law. By the way, how can a man who came to the country on a tourist visa own his own business without fake documentation?

He previously said the agency couldn't discuss any case involving informants, though he explained that in general, "there has to be a significant benefit to the government" in order for informants to receive legal papers.

There's the rub. Did the IA provide assistance that was of significant benefit to us? The story implies so-breaking up a human smuggling ring-but would you expect a sympathetic newspaper to dispute his assertions? I don't think so.

Just remember David Headley was another immigrant informant, and he was the ringleader of the Mumbai bombings. Just because a pro-illegal media says an illegal aliens is wonderful, doesn't mean he is. Also, informants can burn you. Just ask Ali Mohammed.

If he was that valuable then ICE and the government would have already put in his file paperwork that once he was no longer needed, he would be allowed to become a citizen. Just another illegal grasping at straws. Before they deport him I hope they check to make sure he paid every cent in taxes he owes.

This Illegal sister & brother were on 60 mins. about a year ago .The ICE agents say the info Maya gave them was useless so they felt he was just using them and pretending to be an informant to stay in this country. That is why they decided to deport him.

As in most of the world, missing the law must pay the illegals should be deported, I'm amounts Argentina and Argentines living in Florida illegally, but the fault of other failed institutions nor with the laws, allow driver's licenses and allow corporations to open illegal, is something incredible that this is permitted in the U.S., so why illegal invasion.
If you do not change their shape to combat this scourge, soon will have twice as illegal in their country, even have the support of Latino politicians, media such as Univision, CNN in Spanish and many others.
I want to report illegal, even ICE did not give me cavities, is regrettable. For them it is very easy to get to your country and live with impunity and the best, with excellent knowledge of illegals rented houses, three new cars themselves, great furniture, a very American life, the truth that they laugh at you and promise to bring them in few years.
As explained in the forum, I live in Argentina, in 2004 by legal attempt to start a business in the U.S. and the outfit never came, so my anger, people are honest and on the other hand, the intituciones make life very easy for these illegal and above are given the pleasure of criticizing them.
From young to appreciate their country, never thought that things would thus fight with more energy, starting with their own institutions, request that does not allow discharge of an illegal corporation that is not granted a license lead to an illegal, should be a law not to employ illegal immigrants, do not allow Obama to betray legalizing such a number of criminals. From outside and asking for a place to report, I'm with you.