National drive to stop deport

A LOCAL LAWMAKER is going national with his bid to save a former Ground Zero worker from deportation, launching a coast-to-coast petition drive to raise awareness about the New Yorker’s plight.

Rep Joe Crowley (D-Queens) said all Americans should be fighting for Carlos Cardona (photo right), not just people from New York, where Cardona developed respiratory problems from his recovery work at the World Trade Center site after the 9/11 attacks.

“We’re going to take it national and really call people’s attention to just what the government is trying to do in terms of expelling him,” Crowley told the Daily News Tuesday.

“This gentleman is a hero of 9/11 who’s suffering as a result of exposure, like our firefighters and police.

“All of that is being set aside, even though he has strong ties here. The government needs to have a heart and understand what it’s going to do to his family if he’s deported.”

Cardona’s days in the U.S. have been numbered since immigration authorities took him from his Queens home in February and detained him in the early days of the Trump presidency over a 27-year-old drug conviction in New York. The 48-year-old is being held in a New Jersey lockup. Gov. Cuomo pardoned Cardona last week, erasing his conviction, and paving the way for him to stay in New York. Cardona is an undocumented immigrant construction worker from Colombia. He says he suffers from acute respiratory issues, depression, anxiety and PTSD.