‘Dreamer’ arrested after wrong turn into Mexico

SAN DIEGO — On the day before Orr Yakobi’s final quarter at UC San Diego, he was arrested by border officials after his roommate took a wrong turn and drove into Mexico.

Yakobi, 22, is originally from Israel and came to the U.S. on a visa with his family when he was about 5, according to his attorney. When his visa expired, he became an unauthorized immigrant.

He joined the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program in 2013, his attorney said, which gave him a renewable two-year permit protecting him from deportation and authorizing him to work. DACA does not authorize recipients to reenter the U.S. if they leave.

Ryan Hakim, 20, the roommate who was with Yakobi during his arrest rallied Yakobi’s friends, the Jewish community and the university community to help.

A petition he posted online calling for Yakobi’s release gathered 761 signatures in the hours after it went up.

Yakobi is majoring in computer science and was already freelancing as a programmer. He was part of a prize-winning start-up team at the university last year.

He also worked as a DJ in the Los Angeles area, a business he started in high school with a friend.

UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla sent a letter to ICE on Yakobi’s behalf calling for his release.

“He is a valued and active member of our UC San Diego community, and we would very much like to have him return to our campus so he can fulfill his ultimate goal of obtaining his degree,” Khosla wrote.