‘He has rights': Local couple pleads for compassion as husband faces deportation to India
A Middleburg family is begging for help after they claim ICE officials are threatening the husband, who is an Indian national, with immediate deportation and criminal charges.
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'I cannot leave my kids and my wife here. I can't,' said Tapan Purohit.
Purohit and his wife Ashley Kennedy-Purohit told Action News Jax they feel they're living a nightmare.
Tapan came to America on a J-1 visa in 2011.
It expired in 2013.
Last year, he married Ashley and they filed an I-130 marriage petition in hopes of regaining his legal status.
'I prayed so hard that God would send me a good, kind, loving man that would finally be that piece that was missing in our lives and he did,' said Ashley.
Things took a turn last December when Tapan was arrested and charged with resisting an officer without violence.
The charge was ultimately dropped, but over the next few months, he was ordered by ICE to purchase a ticket for removal, which he did.
According to the family's attorney, they filed a series of emergency motions hoping to delay his removal to give time for the marriage petition to be processed.
His motion to stay his deportation was denied on March 11th, but two of the other motions are still pending according to the family's attorney.
'At that point, our attorneys had told us to go ahead and cancel the plane tickets. That we had motions filed so we should have time to continue to petition and pursue,' said Ashley.
But the family told Action News Jax ICE officials arrived at their home Thursday morning demanding Tapan come outside to be taken into ICE custody for deportation.
He did not.
The family claims ICE officials told them they'd return with a warrant and charge Tapan with failure to comply with supervised release.
'And at that point, they can kick our door down and come in in front of my children and take my husband in front of them,' said Ashley. 'My husband may not be a legal American citizen, but is a human being and he has rights.'
Ashley argued her husband still has a right for the motions to be heard.
Tapan and Ashley run a local business and argued they're good hardworking Americans, not criminals.
But they claim throughout this process they've been treated as less-than-human by ICE officials.
'I said like my wife is pregnant, sir. He said like, oh, that's not your kid, that's her kid,' said Tapan. 'We are husband and wife. It's not like her kids or my kids. It's our kids.'
Ashley said she feels like the sudden rush to deport her husband is being driven by a numbers game intended to fulfill a political agenda, rather than a desire for public safety.
'It's just another check on the box. We deported 1,001 people today and Tapan gets to be that 1,001,' said Ashley. 'A computer cannot analyze us and tell us who we are and what we deserve and don't deserve. We need real human beings. That's what due process is.'
The family's attorney gave Action News Jax an update late Thursday afternoon indicating Tapan has been given until Saturday to leave the country voluntarily.
She said the family plans to purchase a plane ticket back to India, and is hopeful the two outstanding emergency motions currently sitting on an immigration judge's desk will be granted before then, to buy Tapan more time for his marriage petition to be processed.
Action News Jax has reached out to ICE for comment on this situation and are waiting on a response.
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