Prosecutorial Discretion Starting to become Reality?
August 31st, 2011 § Leave a Comment
A father and son set to be deported to Peru won a last-minute, temporary reprieve after an Illinois senator intervened on their behalf. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is delaying for a month the deportation of longtime Concord resident Arturo Rengifo, Sr., and his son, Arturo Rengifo, Jr. “My mom is able to relax more,” said the 24-year-old son, who would have left his mother and older brother in Concord had he been forced to take the one-way flight to Lima on Tuesday night. “She can actually breathe now. Hopefully more good things will happen, and I will be able to stay in this country.” The Rengifos are hoping a more lenient Obama administration deportation policy, announced on Aug. 18 but not yet implemented, could keep the family of four together in the Bay Area. “I have more hope now; I have more faith now. I didn’t pack my bags,” said Arturo Rengifo, Jr., a student at Diablo Valley College and customer service representative at an AT&T store in Richmond. His father is a janitor, and the parents run a day care business at their home. They applied for political asylum in the 1990s, but Arturo Rengifo, Sr., recently lost his case after several appeals. News of the 30-day stay came to the family from the office of US Sen. Dick Durbin, which had made calls to immigration officers on the family’s behalf. (Contra Costa Times)
