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Dear John Morton, Director of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, and Janet Napolitano, Director of Homeland
Security,
We write as
representatives of the Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for
Immigrant Rights, with support of our county officials,
to request that you stop the deportation of Lourdes Salazar
Bautista (A# 075-414-900), a beloved mother and member of
our community.
In June 2010, Lourdes was in the
driveway of her home getting ready to drop her daughter off at
school when she was surrounded by ICE officers who proceeded to
arrest her. Despite having a U.S. citizen brother who had
petitioned for Lourdes, she was detained and kept in custody for
a month. Lourdes was issued an order of deportation and needs to
present herself to ICE officials with a one-way ticket to
Mexico, a country she hasn’t been to in 14 years.
Lourdes came to the United States
in 1997 with hopes of creating a better life for herself and her
husband. Soon after her arrival, she became pregnant with the
couple’s first daughter. The couple now has three U.S. citizen
children ages 13, 9, and 7 who need Lourdes to stay in the
United States with them. Lourdes’ husband was deported back to
Mexico in 2010 leaving Lourdes as the sole provider and parent
of these children. If she is deported, she will be separated
from her 3 children and they will grow up without their mother
or father.
Lourdes is an exemplary mother
and member of our community. She has owned her house in Ann
Arbor, Michigan, for over ten years and attends church
regularly. Lourdes’ three children are well-adjusted in school,
but they are so traumatized by their father’s deportation and
possible deportation of their mother that they have needed
therapy to help them cope with the difficult situation. Lourdes’
9 year old daughter suffers from ADD and needs to take
medication on a regular basis. If Lourdes is deported, her
daughter won’t be able to receive the medical attention she
needs.
In a recent
announcement on August 18, 2011, the President stated that
Department of Homeland Security is implementing Prosecutorial
Discretion in cases involving families like
Lourdes’. Lourdes has 3 U.S. citizen children, a U.S. citizen
brother who has petitioned for her, and she has lived in the
United States for 14 years with no criminal violations.
According to the new guidelines, Lourdes is not deemed a
priority for removal by DHS and merits a favorable exercise of
discretion. We ask that you immediately take action to stop the
deportation of Lourdes so she can stay in the United States with
her children and community.
We also ask that you ensure that DHS and ICE act
according to the new guidelines President Obama announced in
August for prosecutorial discretion. So far, we have seen no
changes in the Detroit and surrounding area. Since March of
2008, our organization has documented 310 calls from immigrant
families facing immigration issues (a minority of the families
actually affected). Over 80% of these cases involve the
detainment and/or deportation of more than one person resulting
in hundreds of US citizen children in our community being
separated from parents and relative providers. We are aware
that the Department of Homeland Security’s own statistics reveal
that over half of the record 400,000 people deported in 2010,
had no criminal history at all.
Please stop the deportation of Lourdes Salazar
Bautista as she deserves prosecutorial discretion, and in
addition, work to reduce these types of deportations across our
nation.
We would be happy to meet with you or talk with
you or your staff further about this request at your
convenience.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Laura Sanders
Ramiro Martínez
Margaret Harner
Co-founders of the Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights
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