Woman at center of immigration debate is deported
Arizona case suggests tighter enforcement
Arizona mother of two is sent back to Mexico, her attorney says.
An Arizona mother at the epicenter of the national debate over immigration enforcement was deported, her attorney announced Thursday.
Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, 36, of Mesa, Ariz., was taken into custody Wednesday afternoon during a routine check-in at the central Phoenix offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. For four years, federal immigration authorities had given her a pass to remain in the USA rather than deport her to Mexico.
Her attorney, Ray YbarraMaldonado, said the Mexican consulate informed him Garcia de Rayos was deported Thursday to Nogales, Sonora.
After she was taken into custody Wednesday, her husband, two U.S.-born children and supporters worried that Garcia de Rayos would be deported quickly to Mexico. That, they said, would make her among the first casualties under a shift in policy by ICE under President Trump.
Asked about the deportation at Thursday’s White House briefing, spokesman Sean Spicer referred questions to ICE.
“That’s an ICE matter,” Spicer said. “The situation is developing in Arizona right now.”
The deportation drew swift criticism from critics of Trump’s executive actions on immigration.
Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., said Garcia de Rayos’ deportation is a “tragedy” for her family.
“Donald Trump is cruelly ripping a mother and a breadwinner away from her American citizen children,” he said in a statement Thursday. “Instead of focusing on improving our economy or keeping Americans safe from real danger, the Trump administration’s policies are persecuting law-abiding members of the immigrant community. ... These are productive and contributing members of the Phoenix community, and we will not stand by as Trump implements his bigoted policies.”
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton issued a statement calling the detention and deportation of Garcia de Rayos “a travesty.” He said it shows that Trump’s deportation policies make the country less safe.
“Rather than tracking down vi- olent criminals and drug dealers, ICE is spending its energy deporting a woman with two American children who has lived here for more than two decades and poses a threat to nobody,” Stanton said.
Stanton’s statement came as pro-immigrant activists pushed him to designate Phoenix a “sanctuary city” to stop police from enforcing state and federal immigration law. Stanton opposed that status last week.
The news followed an evening of protest outside ICE offices in Phoenix. Seven people were arrested Wednesday night during demonstrations. Protesters tried to block federal vehicles from leaving the grounds, including one carrying Garcia de Rayos.
The effort was organized by Puente Arizona, the group that blocked roads surrounding a Trump campaign rally in Fountain Hills, Ariz., last year.
In a written statement, ICE officials confirmed that Garcia de Rayos had been detained based on a prior removal order issued by the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review. The order became final in May 2013.
“Relevant databases indicate Ms. Garcia de Rayos has a prior felony conviction dating from March 2009 for criminal impersonation,” the statement said.
They did not comment on whether they diverged from the previous check-in specifically because of the president’s executive order last month on immigration. The felony conviction stems from a work-site raid in 2008 by the Maricopa County Sheriff ’s Office, Ybarra-Maldonado said.
He said Garcia de Rayos came to the USA in 1996, when she was 14. In 2008, she was swept up in one of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s work-site raids.
“Donald Trump is cruelly ripping a mother and a breadwinner away from her American citizen children.” U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz.