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US Deports Undocumented Woman in US for 21 Years

by VOA News

   An undocumented woman who was taken into custody Wednesday when she
   stopped in for a routine check at a U.S. immigration office in Phoenix,
   Arizona has been deported, her lawyer said Thursday.

   Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos has checked in with U.S. immigration
   authorities every year since 2008 when she was stopped for using a fake
   Social Security number during a raid on a water park where she worked.
   In past visits, she answered questions that were put to her and went
   home. Rayos had lived in the U.S. for 21 years.
   But Wednesday evening when Rayos went in for her meeting, she was
   arrested and deportation proceedings were begun.

   Fearing the 36-year-old mother of two would be returned to Mexico,
   protesters gathered and blocked enforcement vans from leaving the U.S.
   immigration office in Phoenix.
   The activists said it was an attempt by President Donald Trump's
   administration to deport immigrants living in the country illegally who
   had previously not been a priority for deportation under the Obama
   administration.
   One of Trump's executive orders on immigration seems to expand the
   range of undocumented people who are eligible for deportation by
   including not only those who have been charged or convicted with
   criminal offenses, but also those who "have committed acts that
   constitute a chargeable criminal offense."

   Protesters on Wednesday night said Garcia de Rayos was in one of the
   vehicles used to transport people in ICE (US Immigration and Customs
   Enforcement) custody to detention centers, or to Arizona's border with
   Mexico for deportation. A photo by the Arizona Republic newspaper
   identified a woman looking through one of the vehicle windows covered
   by security screening as Garcia de Rayos.

   Police posted on Twitter that they arrested about seven protesters, but
   added that the demonstration was mainly peaceful.

   "Besides the few people engaged in criminal acts, most people out here
   are peaceful and exercising their rights properly,'' police said.
   "Everyone remains safe so far. Hoping for continued cooperation and no
   more criminal conduct.''
   "We're living in a new era now, an era of war on immigrants,'' Rayos'
   lawyer, Ray A. Ybarra Maldonado, told the New York Times after leaving
   the immigration building.