Judge to expediate case of deportee
SAN DIEGO – A federal judge hinted last week that he may temporarily grant parole to Juan Manuel Montes Bojorquez, who was allegedly unlawfully deported from Calexico in February, allowing him to testify in an evidentiary hearing aimed at expediting his lawsuit against the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California Judge Gonzalo Curiel indicated on Wednesday that he is interested in hearing from Montes and additional witnesses before ruling on a motion by Montes’ attorneys that requests he be allowed to return to the United States while his case is being heard, the Associated Press reported.
Counsel for both sides had been asked by Curiel on Wednesday to brief him in writing on the evidentiary hearing. Curiel’s proposal to schedule the trial in four to six weeks also appeared to catch counsel off guard, prompting a response that they would likely not be ready for trial until December, the Associated Press reported.
Montes is a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient who allegedly was unlawfully deported on the night of Feb. 18 after being detained and questioned by Border Patrol agents in Calexico.
Montes currently resides in western Mexico with family was had reportedly resided in Salinas prior to his Feb. 19 deportation. He reportedly arrived in the United States as a nine-year-old, and recently worked as a farm laborer in California and Arizona.
In his lawsuit, Montes states that he was reportedly in Calexico visiting his girlfriend at the time he was stopped and detained by CBP personnel near a Calexico taxi stand.
The agency has contended that it has no record of having deported Montes on Feb. 18, and that he forfeited his DACA protection when he voluntarily left the country prior to his being apprehended by Border Patrol agents while attempting to enter the country illegally on Feb. 19, federal court records stated.
As Curiel had noted, Montes’ case hinges on the question of whether Border Patrol unlawfully expelled Montes, or whether at some point prior to his Feb. 19 apprehension in Calexico, Montes had voluntarily left the country, forfeiting his DACA status, which requires participants remain stateside unless granted authorization to leave.
On Wednesday, Montes’ attorneys had sought surveillance videos, patrol logs and agent staffing records related to the El Centro Sector Border Patrol’s operations on Feb. 18, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
In response, government attorneys indicated that surveillance tape is typically recorded over after 30 days and likely no longer exists for the night in question.
A written declaration from El Centro Sector Chief Patrol Agent Rodney Scott filed with the court prior to last week’s hearings also provided additional information that appeared to undermine Montes’ allegations relating to the night in question.
In contrast to Montes’ assertion that he was initially approached by a sole Border Patrol agent on a bicycle on the night in question, Scott stated that agents are only assigned bicycle duties in pairs, and that all agents had been assigned to vehicles for patrol on Feb. 18.
Counter to Montes’ claims that he was deported to Mexicali at about 1 a.m. Feb. 19, Scott clarified that the agency had not repatriated any Mexican immigrants after 10 p.m. this calendar year, his written declaration stated.
In response to Scott’s declaration, as well as the federal government’s opposition to permitting Montes’ return to the U.S. pending the outcome of his lawsuit, Montes’ attorneys filed documents Aug. 15 that attempted to undermine Border Patrol’s assertions about the night in question.
Among those documents is a picture taken by one of Montes’ attorneys on the afternoon of April 22 of a sole Border Patrol agent on a bicycle patrolling downtown Calexico. Her statement also notes that she did not observe any other agent on bicycle patrolling nearby.
Plaintiff’s attorneys also provided a series of letters between Mexican and U.S. immigration officials referencing a Mexico immigrant who was held in CBP custody that was returned to Juarez on Sept. 2, 2016, outside of normal hours agreed upon by a binational repatriation agreement.
Montes’ case has attracted widespread attention for being the first known case of a DACA recipient having been deported under President Donald Trump, who had initially indicated that immigration officials would not target the program’s participants.
More recently, the Trump administration has been advised by attorneys general from 10 states that it has until Sept. 5 to rescind the 2012 DACA program or face potential litigation. The states contend that the DACA program was not within President Barack Obama’s legal power to implement in 2012.
Currently, about 1.1 million immigrants participate in the DACA program, which granted protection against deportation as well as work authorization to eligible immigrants who had arrived in the U.S. as children.