Work Hard, Go to School, End Up in Jail

by: koleary

Sun Nov 20, 2011 at 04:28:30 PM EST

Good post from over the weekend. - promoted by Rosi

Work hard, go to school, get ahead. Isn't that the American Dream we were all brought up to believe in?

That is not the case for two brothers from Passaic County. Michell D. Valle and Yasser S. Valle were born in Peru and immigrated to the United States in 1989, at the young age of 6 and 5 years old. Both graduated high school and attended college in their pursuit of the American dream. That dream became a nightmare for Michell, the father of two US citizen children, when he was detained October 25, 2010 after years of going through all the proper legal channels to adjust his immigration status. His brother Yasser followed his brother when he was detained on August 5, 2011.

The Valle brothers should qualify for relief from both detention and deportation based on new guidelines that were issued to all ICE field offices by DHS back in June.

koleary :: Work Hard, Go to School, End Up in Jail

The purpose of those guidelines was to ensure that resources were being used to prosecute only those cases that involved high-level criminal offenders. (Being out of immigration status is, by itself, only a civil offense.)

At the same time a case by case review of all individuals in deportation proceedings was ordered with the purpose of closing those cases where defendants posed no security threat. That review, though promised in June, had only just begun last week. So far, the Newark Field Office has refused to follow the prosecutorial discretion guidelines in the cases of the Valle brothers and relief as a result of the case by case review will, in all likelihood, will come too late.

This Tuesday, November 22nd, at 7:00 pm in front of the Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal Elohim located at 362 E 27th Street, Paterson, the New Jersey DREAM Act Coalition (NJDAC), a statewide immigrant youth-led organization that advocates for immigrant youth rights, will gather for a press conference and a vigil in support of Michell and Yasser Valle.

Please join them as they demand that the Immigration & Customs Enforcement Newark Field Office follow the prosecutorial guidelines issued by the Department of Homeland Security this past June, and release them from detention so that they may be reunited with families.

Please remember the Valle family this Thanksgiving as you sit down with yours. Be thankful that your family is together to celebrate the holiday and pray that our immigration policies stop tearing other families like the Valle's apart.