A janitor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was arrested by federal immigration officials with the intention of deporting him from the US, is to be released from custody a few hours before Christmas, following his lawyer’s success in a motion within the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The ruling essentially means that Francisco Rodriguez-Guardado can now not be deported from the US until at least the second half of next year. The case became a focal point for opponents of the immigration crackdown initiated by President Donald Trump during the summer in the local area, with Rodriguez-Guardado’s case cited as an example of how law-abiding individuals who contribute to US society are being swept up alongside the hardened criminals who are supposedly the main target of the crackdown.
The number of arrests of undocumented immigrants in the US has increased by around 37 percent, to 75,000 in the first half of 2017, from 55,000 in the corresponding period last year, according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement data. Almost 20,000 of those arrests are of immigrants who have committed no other offenses, which is a rise of as much as 145 percent from 2016.
American Civil Liberties Union lawyer, Adriana Lafaille, says there was no reason for Rodriguez-Guardado, who has no criminal record, runs his own business, and volunteers at his local church and child’s school, to be held in detention.