A 9/11-sickened hardhat fights deport
A QUEENS MAN put his health on the line to help remove hazardous material from Ground Zero — and now federal immigration authorities want him removed from the country over a 30-year-old criminal case.
Carlos Humberto Cardona, 48, was one of about 41,300 people Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents took into custody during the first 100 days of the Trump administration. But Cardona is fighting for his freedom — with a Brooklyn federal lawsuit and a state clemency bid.
“I can’t believe that this is happening to him after all of the sacrifices he has made,” Cardona’s wife, Liliana, told the Daily News. Cardona didn’t think twice about being part of the 9/11 cleanup effort, his wife said.
“His health ended up being affected. He has lung problems. He has gastrointestinal problems. He has psychological issues,” she said.
“He’s very much an American,” Rajesh Barua, Cardona’s attorney, told The News. Last week, Barua filed a legal action asking a Brooklyn federal judge to make the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services hurry and decide on a basic 2014 application verifying his marriage to Liliana, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen. An approved application is the first step in trying to attain residency, Barua noted.
Cardona, in custody in New Jersey, also has a pending clemency application with New York State, filed in April.
“I certainly think the circumstances warrant a pardon,” Barua said.
Liliana said Cardona fled to the United States in 1986 at age 17. His two older brothers were police officers who’d been killed by anti-government rebels when Colombia was deep in a decades-long civil war.
“His life was in danger,” Liliana said.
In 1990, Cardona pleaded guilty to an attempted drug sale count in New York.
Cardona has had no convictions since.
In May 2000, authorities entered a removal order based on the conviction. The order was hanging over his head during his months of Ground Zero cleanup work through Milro Construction. It stayed with him as he raised his now 19-year-old daughter, Jiselle, and married Liliana in 2013, after a long courtship.
In April 2011, ICE agents arrested Cardona, but let him go the same day. They put him on an order of supervision, which, Barua explained, was like being on supervised release with required periodic check-ins.
According to court papers, Cardona got the order of supervision because of his “chronic respiratory problems caused by his time as a recovery worker.”
ICE revoked the supervision order earlier this year, following President Trump’s January executive order pledging “all appropriate actions” to detain immigrants facing deportation. An ICE spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.
Cardona was taken into custody during a February check-in with immigration authorities and has been held at Hudson County Correctional Facility in New Jersey.