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Guatemalan activist who invited ICE to a community forum faces deportation

2019-09-17T18:31:32.799Z


A judge denied on Monday the bail of Roland Gramajo, a community activist who was arrested by immigration agents weeks after organizing a forum to calm concerns about ...


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(CNN) - A judge on Monday denied the bail of Roland Gramajo, a community activist who was arrested by immigration agents weeks after organizing a forum to calm concerns about immigration raids.

Gramajo, 40 and father of five children, is an undocumented Guatemalan immigrant who has lived in the United States for 25 years, and has been an activist for immigrants in Houston, Texas, the place he calls home.

He was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents earlier this month, ICE said.

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Roland Gramajo.

The agency says the arrest was part of a routine operation based on an anonymous complaint to remove Gramajo from the country, as he had illegally re-entered the United States in 2004.

Family and friends say they believe Gramajo's activism made him a target of ICE, as the Donald Trump government has a hardline agenda on immigration. Weeks before his arrest, Gramajo had invited ICE to a forum he organized to ease fears about ICE raids, but the agency refused, the activist and his lawyer said.

"We want to believe that these are coincidences, unfortunately, the more we see them, the more we feel that some people who are speaking against the administration or ICE are being attacked by those same agencies," said Cesar Espinosa of the FIEL Houston organization, which watch over the rights of immigrants.

Gramajo is being held because the federal government wants to convict him for illegal re-entry, something that could result in imprisonment before being deported.

The judge's decision to deny bail paves the way for the government to prosecute him for the illegal reentry charge.

The judge said that if Gramajo is released and handed over to ICE, he could be deported before the case could be tried.

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Gramajo was deported in 2004

Gramajo was convicted of stealing a vehicle, a misdemeanor, in 1999 when he was 19, according to court documents read by a judge on Monday. Because he was illegally in the United States, he faced deportation.

Gramajo's appeal to the ruling was denied in 2001.

He was deported on June 21, 2004, ICE said.

Gramajo returned to the United States a few months later, according to his lawyer Raed González, and since then he has been living in Houston, where he became a community activist known for helping other immigrants. Last year, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner named May 17 as "Roland Gramajo Day."

ICE told CNN that it received an anonymous notice in July that Gramajo was in the country illegally. The source provided the home address, business address and information about Gramajo's car.

A month later, Gramajo was the host of the community forum and an ICE officer was tasked to review the information. Gramajo was arrested and arrested on September 5, ICE said.

ICE officials told CNN that the agency "does not aim to arrest illegally present foreigners based on their defense positions or in retaliation for the critical comments they make."

"To be completely clear, ICE staff did not attend this Immigration Forum in any way, official or unofficial," the agency said in a statement.

The agency said Gramajo was arrested because his "repeated actions have shown that he does not respect US law."

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Gramajo's wife and lawyer say he is not a criminal

Gramajo returned to the United States after his deportation to support his family, Gonzalez said.

"This is one of the good guys, this is one of the good men we shouldn't deport, according to this administration," Gonzalez said. "We believe that at some point he could have been selected because he was an activist."

Gramajo's family says he did not apply for legal status because his illegal re-entry would have made approval almost impossible. Gonzalez said his client did not know he could re-enter the country legally at that time. His wife, Magaly Quicano, is a permanent resident and his five children are US citizens.

"Now I am a single mother with five children in my house and there are too many questions to answer, it is a lot of stress," Quicano said, adding that her biggest fear is that her husband will remain in prison.

If Gramajo is deported, Gonzalez said, he would not be eligible to return to the United States for 20 years.

"Just imagine being separated from a loved one for 20 years," Gonzalez said. "This is going to be really tragic for this family."

- Allison Flexner of CNN and Ashley Killough contributed to this report.

ICE

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2019-09-17

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