Lawmaker seeks inquiry in man’s deportation case

Jackson Lee says Houston immigrant who lost ‘deferred action’ status is ‘not a threat’ to nation

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee vows to again appeal to Immigration Customs and Enforcement officials to stop the deportation of an El Salvador native she says is an employed taxpayer, not a violent criminal.

When immigration agents moved in to deport then 26-year old Jose Escobar in 2012, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, DHouston, appealed to the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the release of the El Salvador-born handyman.

Escobar, married to an American citizen, was granted “deferred action,” allowing him to work and live legally in the U.S. while immigration officials focused on deporting violent criminals.

But that was more than five years and a presidential administration ago.

Under executive orders signed last month by President Donald Trump, immigration officials in Houston recently informed Escobar they were revoking his temporary protection from deportation and returning him to El Salvador - a country he hadn’t seen since he left 16 years ago.

And now Jackson Lee is once again advocating for the kind of prosecutorial discretion that would reunite Escobar with his family.

“I have every reason to believe that what I did in 2012 was the right thing to do,” Jackson Lee said Friday in a phone interview from Sri Lanka.

She said Escobar is a gainfully employed tax payer who, other than for his immigration status, has never run afoul of the law.

“He should have his right to be able to make the case that he is seeking legal status,” Jackson Lee said. “One of the troubling aspects of the executive order is the seeming denial of due process.”

Jackson Lee said her office will send an official letter of inquiry to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about the case of Escobar, who remains in detention. She wants to know

what grounds government officials have for ordering his detention and eventual deportation.

“I want to hear from them and then we will continue the process of reviewing this through Homeland Security,” Jackson Lee said.

In a statement, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman said Escobar was originally released in 2012 so he could “get his affairs in order prior to his removal to El Salvador.”

Jackson Lee, who was out of the country on a congressional delegation examining, among other topics, national security and immigration, said she would soon speak with Escobar’s wife to get more details.

“I maintain that Mr. Escobar is still eligible for discretion,” she said.

Under the Trump administration’s immigration policy, Jackson Lee said Escobar’s case will not be unique.

“We’re going to be seeing these one after another — families being ripped apart,” she said. “The immigration process is no longer going after bad guys.”

Jackson Lee said she was under the impression that Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly was not pressing for widespread deportations of immigrants in the country illegally.

However, the congresswoman said if Escobar is deported it would, in effect, result in “mass deportations” because he’s unlikely to be the only one. “Mr. Escobar is not a threat to the nation.”

On her overseas trip, which has included stops in places like India and Sri Lanka, Jackson Lee said their leaders are apprehensive about the Trump Administration’s immigration policy.

“You can imagine the response we’re getting. They’re asking questions about what is going on in this country,” she said.