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Court orders review of woman’s deportation.
A federal appeals court in Cincinnati ordered U.S. immigration officials this week to reconsider evidence in the case of a Fairfield, Ohio, mother of four who was deported in April.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the federal Board of Immigration Appeals should not have rejected the motion to stop Maribel Trujillo-Diaz’s removal from the country.
The circuit, one of 13 appeals court divisions across the USA, covers cases in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee.
The basis for the court’s decision and order in the Trujillo-Diaz case is new testimony about threats from a major Mexican drug cartel to her father about her and her family.
“This is indeed good news but far from a victory,” said the Rev. Mike Pucke, Trujillo-Diaz’s pastor at St. Julie Billiart Catholic Church in Hamilton, Ohio.
Trujillo-Diaz’s lawyers filed the motion weeks before her deportation April 19.
The appeals court ruled that the board “abused its discretion, which is the highest bar,” said Kathleen Kersh, one of Trujillo- Diaz’s lawyers. “The court said the BIA (Board of Immigration Appeals) had refused to thoroughly analyze the new evidence.”
In February 2017, court records show, Trujillo-Diaz learned that her father had been kidnapped by the Knights Templar, a Mexican gang.
He said gang members were looking for his son, Omar Daniel, who had refused to join the gang.
Gang leaders said they knew that Daniel had fled to the USA and that his sister, Trujillo-Diaz, was there, too.
The gang threatened, according to court records, “to hurt the rest of (the) family if they could not get their hands on Omar Daniel and Maribel.”
The new evidence prompted Trujillo-Diaz to file a motion to reopen her case.
The case will move from the federal appeals court to the Board of Immigration Appeals, a process that can take up to two months.
Trujillo-Diaz’s lawyers will continue their efforts to bring her back to the USA and her family.
“The best-case scenario is that the BIA remands that case back to an immigration judge to consider the new evidence,” Kersh said. “It’s significant that the 6th Circuit ruled that the evidence is compelling.”
Trujillo-Diaz will be allowed to return to testify if a new hearing is granted before a judge.