Let pizza guy see kids: plea
AN IMPRISONED immigrant pizza delivery man could be deported within 72 hours, his lawyer said Friday as she argued for his release pending a hearing.
Legal Aid immigration unit head Jennifer Williams asked Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials for a stay on humanitarian grounds to spare Pablo Villavicencio from being returned to Ecuador.
“Pablo is the provider for his U.S. citizen wife and children,” said Williams. “He pays taxes and has no criminal history.
“If the government has any remaining decency, they will grant our motion and release Pablo back to his family.”
Villavicencio, 35, remains in custody at an ICE detention facility in Kearny, N.J.
His lawyer was accompanied in court in lower Manhattan by a coalition of public defenders, immigration rights activists and local community members.
Villavicencio, a Long Islander, was arrested June 1 while delivering pizza to the Fort Hamilton Army base in Brooklyn after a guard uncovered a 2009 deportation order against him.
In the years since he was ordered to leave, Villavicencio married Sandra Chica in 2013. They settled in Hempstead, L.I., and have two daughters Luciana, 3, and Antonia, 2.
Chica and the girls are American citizens, and Villavicencio’s application for permanent residency is pending.
The jailed man’s supporters fear his deportation could come before Luciana’s 4th birthday on June 20. His wife spent Friday with their girls.
“Pablo is the bedrock of our family and our children and I would be lost without him,” his wife said in a statement.
“It is outrageous that he could be taken from us like this. We call on ICE to do the right thing and let him come home while we fight against his deportation, so he can stay here with his daughters.”
Gov. Cuomo once again offered support for the jailed dad, sending a letter to acting Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security John Kelly on Villavicencio’s behalf.
“His arrest and detention appears to be a result of ethnic profiling and does nothing to make our communities safer,” wrote Cuomo.
“Detaining a hardworking man, separating a father from his children and tearing apart families doesn’t make America safe.”