Yanked apart
Bx. dad faces deport as son signs for DACA
AROUND 400 people marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall on Sunday, decrying a resurgence of white supremacy they say President Trump has enabled.
The March for Racial Justice featured protesters shouting that racism is evident in the government’s response to the disaster in Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria and in Trump’s immigration policies.
David Galarza, 48, a labor and community activist from Sunset Park, Brooklyn, waved a Puerto Rican flag as he marched.
“Donald Trump is killing Puerto Ricans,” he said.
“He’s not doing jack to help the people in Puerto Rico.”
Many white supremacists see Trump as their leader, said Agunda Okeyo, co-chair of the march.
“You can call him an avatar for hate,” Okeyo said of Trump. He added that most Americans are not racist, but unfortunately “those voices aren’t the loudest right now.”
Trump notoriously chose not to condemn neo-Nazi protesters following a deadly rally in August in Charlottesville, Va. HIGH SCHOOL senior Alex Leon-Alvarez doesn’t want to be deported, so the Bronx teen made sure last week to fill out the papers he needs to be able to stay. His dad may not be so lucky. Demetrio Leon-Alvarez, who brought Alex (photos inset) over the Mexican border as an infant, is being held in an immigration detention center.
And unless the government has an unexpected change of heart, he’ll be torn from his three children and pregnant wife.
“There are other people outside who have robbed and killed and raped — but I didn’t do anything to anyone. And I’m in here,” Leon-Alvarez said in a phone interview with the Daily News.
“I want to be back with them, and they need me. We all want to be together.”
Both father and son are navigating President Trump’s immigration policies — and the family of five is on the verge of being split apart.
“I guess there’s no choice but to follow the law,” said 17-year-old Alex, as he filled out Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals paperwork last week at a Legal Aid office. “If we do not follow it, there will be more consequences.”
His 41-year-old father shared that law-abiding instinct — and it cost him.
The undocumented immigrant was detained two weeks ago during his routine check-in with ICE.
Since then, he’s been separated from Alex, his wife Dalia, who’s six months pregnant, their 6-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son, both of whom are citizens.
“I feel a little angry about the laws of the country,” said Dalia, 37. “In order for people to have rights, they have to be born here.”
The family’s pastor at St. Rita of Cascia Church in Mott Haven has vouched for the family.
“Demetrio is a very good, honest, upright family man who takes care of his children and wife, who is at present expecting another child. He is hardworking and supports his family with his work,” the Rev. Pablo Gonzalez wrote in a letter to immigration authorities seeking leniency.
Leon-Alvarez had supported his family by working 48 hours per week at an Associated Supermarket fish counter, earning $11 an hour.
He entered the country illegally in 2001 but crossed paths with ICE following a raid while riding a bus in Rochester in 2009. He signed a document agreeing to leave the country but remained in New York.
In 2013, he got a summons for walking between subway cars. The case was dismissed, but the infraction put him on ICE’s radar.
By then, President Barack Obama had implemented a policy prioritizing who should be deported. Leon-Alvarez’s clean criminal record allowed him to stay.
But at his first check-in at ICE offices under President Trump, he was detained. And relief does not appear on the horizon.
“ICE will no longer exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement,” agency spokeswoman Rachael Yong Yow said.
“All of those in violation of the immigration laws may be subject to immigration arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removed from the
United States.”