ICE cancels meeting with restaurateur facing deportation

Lawyer: Francisco Javier Gonzalez likely can stay in U.S. into summer.

PALM BEACH — Francisco Javier Gonzalez’s meeting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials was canceled Friday, and the Palm Beach restaurant manager will likely be granted an extended stay into the summer, according to his lawyer.

Gonzalez, the manager of Pizza Al Fresco in Palm Beach, had a meeting scheduled at an ICE office in Miramar on Friday morning to receive an update on his immigration status — and possibly be taken into custody and deported.

But his lawyer, Richard Hujber, as he was driving to Miramar, received a phone call from an immigration official: The meeting had been canceled, the official said, and ICE will likely allow Gonzalez to stay in the United States for at least another 60 to 90 days.

Hujber immediately called Gonzalez, who was standing outside the immigration building, waiting to learn his fate.

“OK, my man,” Hujber said, smiling. “It’s canceled.”

“Nice,” Gonzalez said after a deep sigh of relief. “Awesome.”

The 36-year-old Gonzalez, who came to the Unites States from Mexico when he was 15, has been waiting for a decision on his immigration status for several years. After coming into the country using what he thought was a valid visa, he briefly returned to Mexico after high school, but when he tried to re-enter the United States, he was told his visa was not valid — and was deported and issued a five-year ban. He returned to the United States before the five years were up. But Gonzalez, who was a teenager at the time and still learning English, said he did not know what he was doing

was illegal.

Since then, Gonzalez has been attending meetings with immigration officials and living in a state of uncertainty, knowing ICE officers could come to his home anytime and place him in custody, taking him away from his wife and his three young daughters.

“It’s been difficult,” Gonzalez said Wednesday. “I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Gonzalez said he is optimistic immigration officers will allow him to stay, especially with all the support he has received from Palm Beach. Residents have written letters to lawmakers on Gonzalez’s behalf, customers at Pizza Al Fresco tell Gonzalez they’re praying for him and a petition on change.org to keep Gonzalez from being deported has just under 100,000 signatures.

“This guy is the opposite of a danger to society,” said Hujber, who added Gonzalez has no criminal record.

Jose Duran, who owns Pizza Al Fresco with his mother, Arlene Desiderio, said on Wednesday that Gonzalez is one of the hardest and most honest workers he has ever met.

“He is an exceptional human being,” Duran said. “There isn’t a single positive thing that will happen by Javier being deported.”

Gonzalez is scheduled to appear at a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in West Palm Beach on Monday for an update on his approved marriage petition.

He will return to the ICE office in Miramar on Wednesday to formally accept a 60to 90-day temporary stay in the United States, according to Hujber.

But any day, Gonzalez knows, his status can change.

“To think about it every single day, it doesn’t let you plan your life,” Gonzalez said. “I have to show up at work and put on my best face and try not to think about it.”