I LIVE IN FEAR OF ‘UNJUST’ DEPORT
ICE after Qns. ma weeks from legality
An immigrant mom desperate to stay in the Big Apple with her American citizen hubby and three young kids was just weeks from becoming a permanent resident but now fears she’ll get deported at any moment and torn from her family.
“I don’t feel safe,” said Karina Bailon, 32, of Queens, who has been married to a naturalized US citizen for four years.
“Right now, I am afraid that I can be arrested at any time and be taken away from my children. It could happen anywhere.”
Bailon recently applied for a green card, hoping that would allow her to remain here legally.
She even got a judge to nullify an old deportation order and schedule an interview on Sept. 13 with the US consulate in her native Mexico as the final step toward citizenship.
But ICE delivered a blow to her case, appealing that judge’s decision and making clear that the deportation order for her in 2001 — issued when she was just 15 — was all they needed to boot Bailon out of the country.
“I just want immigration officials to follow the law and do what’s right,” she said in Spanish. “Now I live in fear.”
Many immigrants wrongly assume that being married to an American is all they need to gain legal residency. But the law allows immigration agents to deny those who cannot prove they came to the US legally.
Experts say that provision was rarely enforced under previous administrations. But ICE under President Trump has aggressively targeted anyone who can be kicked out under existing statutes.
Bailon’s tale is similar to that of other immigrants, who came to this country in search of a better life.
As a teen, she fled the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca to be reunited with her mother in New York, where she juggled jobs as a housekeeper and restaurant worker.
After meeting her husband, Lucio Bailon, she stopped working to raise their three kids: Stephanie, 9, Daniel, 7 and Lucio, 5.
Lucio Sr., 30, works stocking beer to support the family. The couple lives in Corona.
New York City immigration judge Helen Sichel ruled on July 25 that Bailon’s 2001 deportation order was defective because it didn’t include a date or a time for her to appear.
Her lawyer Ray Fasano said Sichel’s decision followed precedent set by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, which bars undocumented immigrants with faulty deportation orders from being kicked out of the country.
But ICE filed an expedited appeal on Aug. 16, and agents told Fasano that they could move to boot Bailon any time during the next 30 days.
“It’s outrageous,” Fasano told The Post. “She has an interview in two weeks and instead of immigration being consistent with the notices and the guidelines that they’ve given Karina, they do an about face and appeal with an expedited briefing schedule.”
Fasano said it’s the first time in 22 years of practice that he’s seen ICE file an expedited appeal in removal proceedings, adding that he believes the agency wants to deport her quickly.
“I have no confidence anymore,” Bailon said. “Because of my children, this is my country now.”