by Karol Brown and Sharon Underwood
Jorge-Alonso Chehade-Zegarra (known as Alonso to his
friends) is one of thousands of young people working for the passage of the
DREAM Act. But Alonso's situation is more dire and more desperate than these
others--he is currently under ICE supervision. His only hope for remaining at
his home in the United States is the passage of the DREAM Act or a private
immigration bill.
Alonso is a twenty-three-year-old Peruvian national residing
in Washington State. He has lived in the United States since the age of
fourteen, when his family entered on visitor visas and remained. Alonso is what
everyone agrees is a ''good kid.'' He has no criminal history. Alonso has
studied hard and graduated with honors from high school. He earned a bachelor's
degree in Business Administration from the University of Washington, without
the assistance of federal student aid.
Alonso was detained by ICE after missing an exit on the
freeway and mistakenly arriving at the US-Canadian border on a trip visiting
friends. He was initially detained and granted voluntary departure by the
Immigration Judge, as no other relief was available under current law. However,
Alonso was intent on finding a solution to remain legally in the United States.
He organized a campaign to halt his deportation and secured pro bono
representation by attorneys Karol Brown and Shannon M. Underwood of Global Justice
Law Group. They requested Deferred Action from Seattle DRO Neil Clark. Their
request included an online petition with nearly 4,000 signatures, and a
seventeen-inch stack of faxed support letters. While the request was being
considered, Congressman Jim McDermott introduced a private bill, H.R. 3638, to
grant permanent resident status to Alonso Chehade. Despite this amazing level
of community support, DRO Clark denied the request. To add insult to injury,
ICE issued a letter demanding that Alonso turn in his parents and two younger
siblings.
With ongoing pressure from elected government officials,
Alonso's removal has continued to be delayed. First, he was granted several
one-month extensions after considerable lobbying efforts. Senator Maria
Cantwell is considering the introduction of a private bill in the Senate on
Alonso's behalf. She took up this cause after receiving letters of support from
Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire, state representatives and
senators, and several community leaders. Most recently, on February 12, 2010,
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano announced an indefinite delay of Alonso's removal.
This announcement was the result of Senator Cantwell's personal request to
Secretary Napolitano on Alonso's behalf.
Karol Brown and Shannon Underwood are now working with
Congressman McDermott's office to push for a subcommittee vote on Alonso's
private bill. This vote would automatically stay his departure order until
Congress can pass the legislation. For a vote to occur, the House Judiciary
Committee must refer the private bill to its Subcommittee on Immigration,
Border Security, and Claims. Congressman McDermott must then submit specified
documentation and request a hearing to the subcommittee. The subcommittee could
then request a report on Alonso's case from the Department of Homeland
Security. ICE policy provides for a stay of deportation when it receives this
request from the House subcommittee chairman.n1
Alonso's only hope in remaining in the United States is the
passage of a private bill or the passage of the DREAM Act in this year. A stay
of removal would enable Alonso to continue his activism on the passage of the
DREAM Act without fear of imminent removal from his home. This legislation
would allow other deserving young people to remain in the United States. We
encourage all immigration attorneys to use this case, and others like it, to
raise awareness of the urgent need for immigration reform.
Alonso's case continues to attract local and national media
focus, and draws attention to cases of similarly situated DREAM Act eligible
students. Alonso has used this media attention to found ''DREAMers for Positive
Change,'' a social networking site and blog that allows fellow DREAM
Act-eligible youth to share their stories, coordinate with similarly situated
young people, and advocate for passage of the DREAM Act. The site is available
at http://www.dreampositive.info/.
The DREAM Act would legalize the status of young people with
good moral character who have lived in the United States for at least five
years and graduated from high school. The bill also would amend the Illegal
Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996n2 to again permit
states to recognize residency for in-state tuition purposes. The passage of the
DREAM Act would enable tens of thousands of young people, like Alonso, to make
the most of their lives, complete their educations, and become legal and
contributing members of our community.
Footnotes:
(n1)Footnote 1. For
more on private bills, see 6 Charles Gordon, Stanley Mailman & Stephen
Yale-Loehr, Immigration Law and Procedure § 74.09, or Daniel Kowalski,
Immigration Law and Procedure: Desk Edition § 20.06
(n2)Footnote 2. Division C of the Omnibus Consolidated
Appropriations Act, 1997, Pub. L. No. 104-208, § 505, 110 Stat. 3009-672
(codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1623).
Karol Brown and Shannon M. Underwood are partners in Global
Justice Law Group, PLLC, of Seattle (http://globaljusticelaw.wordpress.com/).
Karol has a Master's in Public Policy from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a law degree from Yale Law School. She founded the
Center for Human Rights and Justice at the University of Washington and Seattle
University law schools, which enables law students to take on human rights
projects for organizations throughout the world. Karol served as an attorney in
a class action against DHS to prevent the deportation of over 3,000 individuals
to Somalia. She has worked with the American Bar Association and the Center for
Human Rights and Justice to study detention conditions in immigration
facilities. She served on the Executive Committee of the American Immigration
Lawyers of Washington. Karol has also worked as a Policy and Advocacy Director
for Hate Free Zone Washington (now called OneAmerica). Shannon graduated from
the University of Colorado School of Law. In law school she interned for
non-profit immigration organizations including the Florence Immigrant and
Refugee Rights Project in Arizona and the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy
Network in Colorado. After she graduated, Shannon worked for various private
immigration law firms. Shannon's experience includes representation of clients
in deportation proceedings, family and business nonimmigrant and immigrant visa
processing, protection under the Violence Against Women Act, religious visas,
naturalization, asylum, TPS, NACARA, and appellate work.
[This is an excerpt from the April 15, 2010, issue of Bender’s
Immigration Bulletin.]