ICE detains Coast immigrant working to gain green card
By Mina Corpuz | Originally published by Mississippi Today
Ever since Catherine Cool and Heriberto Reyes-Ochoas married over a decade ago, she has worried about immigration officials detaining her husband.
Each time Reyes, nicknamed Eddie, drove from their home in Hancock County to work at a marine construction company in Slidell, Louisiana, she felt anxious that he wouldn’t make it back home.
That fear struck last week when Reyes got into a fender bender about 10 minutes from home in Kiln. Nobody was injured, but the Mississippi Highway Patrol trooper who responded determined Reyes, who emigrated from Mexico 20 years ago, did not have legal immigration status and took him to the local jail.
The 34-year-old spent the weekend there before paying bond to leave Monday, only for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to take him into custody the next day. By Thursday, Reyes was at the Adams County Correctional Center in Natchez facing deportation proceedings.
“This is like a nightmare come true,” Cool, who is 35 and an American citizen, told Mississippi Today. “But we’re going to do what we can.”
The couple celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary last weekend while Reyes was in jail. She is pregnant with their first child, who is due in January.
‘He’s here doing the right thing’
In the mid-2000s, when Reyes was a teenager, he and an uncle traveled through Texas and made their way to Mississippi. When his uncle left, Reyes lived with an older woman and her family until he was able to be on his own, Cool said.
The couple met as teenagers working at a Mexican restaurant in Bay St. Louis. They have been together since 2010 and married four years later.
Reyes has taken steps to secure permanent residency, starting with a petition by an American sponsor which had been approved years ago. Because he did not have lawful entry into the U.S., Reyes has had to seek a green hard through consular processing, said Delaney Mecham, Reyes’ attorney.
The last step in that process is an interview with the consulate in Mexico. But, his attorney said there are some challenges to that. The U.S. Department of State has paused the visa application process and interviews while Reyes was waiting for one. Any adult who entered the country without authorization and then leaves is subject to a 10-year bar from reentering. Although a waiver has been filed to enable Reyes to go to a consulate interview, Mecham said there is the possibility he wouldn’t be able to return to the U.S.
“We’re not trying to hide the way he came in,” Cool said. “We’re doing what we’re supposed to do through relief given to people like him through the government, and it still doesn’t seem to help.”
Reyes does not have a criminal record, according to his wife.
Cool’s sister, Savannah Corbitt, shared Reyes’ story on Facebook Wednesday morning and it has been shared over 500 times. The post directs people to call U.S. Rep. Mike Ezell’s office and the offices of U.S. Sens. Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith. People sharing and responding to the post have also suggested contacting Gulf Coast state lawmakers.
In the post, Corbitt wrote that Reyes has been part of the family for years. They’ve known each other since they were teenagers. He’s held her children when they were young and has shown up for birthdays, family dinners, holidays and other ordinary days, she said.
“If you know Eddie, you know exactly what kind of man he is,” Corbitt wrote. “He is the person who will do anything he can for anyone who needs him. And right now, he needs us.”
Corbitt also started a petition calling for Reyes’ release from detention while his immigration proceedings continue.
What happened?
The day of the minor accident, the trooper told Reyes he had an immigration warrant against him and detained him. They were confused about the warrant because, Cool said, Reyes’ only contact with immigration officials has been through a petition and waiver filed on his behalf through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Reyes’ detention by the trooper was possible through the 287(g) program, which allows local and state law enforcement to work with ICE. The Mississippi Department of Public Safety signed an agreement last year giving the Highway Patrol and several other divisions authority to enforce federal immigration laws during routine policing.
Mecham said local and state law enforcement’s willingness to work with ICE has led to children being separated from their parents and two-parent households turning into single-parent ones.
He said he sees the partnerships as more of a political talking point than a practical benefit for communities. Mecham said a better use of resources would be for local law enforcement to address violent crime and local policing rather than civil immigration matters. The federal government has the resources to address its immigration laws, he said.
“At a community level, these rules will cause more harm for our community,” Mecham said.
Once in ICE custody, officers interviewed Reyes at their office in Gulfport and determined he would be detained, his wife said.
Mecham said he requested ICE release Reyes on personal recognizance or on parole, but that did not happen.
ICE will likely not grant the bond, Mecham said, even though there is nothing in the record to indicate Reyes is a flight risk or a danger to the community. Reyes has strong incentives to appear in immigration court, Mecham said. He noted that his client is near the end of a lengthy process to obtain a green card, and the life Reyes has built with Cool on the Gulf Coast is another incentive.
‘He’s willing to fight it’
Cool works in Mecham’s immigration office, and she said she has seen the impact of immigration enforcement and detention on people. Now she is experiencing it.
For the past seven years, Cool has worked in the immigration field and is pursuing a career in immigration law. She graduated from Loyola University New Orleans in May and plans to take the bar exam in February.
Cool visited Reyes when he was still at the jail, but on Wednesday he was transferred from Hancock County. She and family thought he would be taken to a detention center in Louisiana, but on Thursday he called her from the Adams County facility to say he was there.
He seems upset and doesn’t understand the situation, Cool said.
His attorney will consider other ways to secure his release, such filing a habeas corpus petition in federal court.
“He said he’s willing to fight it to try and get out,” Cool said.
This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Source: Original Article
