As Milwaukee leaders come to her support, MPS aide may not have to leave US immediately
As members of the Milwaukee Common Council stood in the council chambers for 14 minutes on June 3 — one for each year Yessenia Ruano has lived in the United States — news broke that her imminent departure from the country could be delayed as her visa application for trafficking victims is processed.
The news was the latest twist in Ruano's public effort to fight her deportation. The Milwaukee Public Schools teaching aide was ordered on May 30 by U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement to return to her home country of El Salvador.
Before her self-deportation order was delayed, her flight was scheduled for the evening of June 3. Ruano, who has a pending visa application for human trafficking victims, previously said that if ICE ordered it, she'd leave the country with her daughters, who are both U.S citizens.
The 14 council members who stood together flanking a photo of Ruano asked that she be able to stay in the country while her T-Visa is being processed.
"It's about due process,' said council President José G. Pérez, who organized the action along with Alds. JoCasta Zamarripa and Marina Dimitrijevic.
Pérez said he hoped the unanimous show of solidarity would demonstrate to Milwaukee's immigrant community that the council doesn't believe Ruano's treatment is fair.
Zamarripa called Ruano the "kind of person that makes Milwaukee a better place."
"She is one of millions of people who are suffering at the hands of a broken immigration system and whose American dream is now turning into a nightmare," Zamarripa said.
Dimitrijevic said Ruano's case is one of many nationwide, and she hopes the council's action would point to the larger issue.
"This city was built on the backs of immigrants, and that's why we stood in solidarity today, and we're not going to back down," Dimitrijevic said.
The council action came one day after U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee, sent a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement expressing 'deep concern' over Ruano's deportation order despite her pending visa application.
Calling Ruano a 'pillar in our Milwaukee community,' Moore wrote that deporting her 'will not make our country safer.'
Ruano had a plane ticket out of the Chicago O'Hare airport for the evening of June 3. She was packing suitcases in the morning when she learned she may have at least a bit more time in the U.S.
Ruano and her attorney, Marc Christopher, requested a 'stay,' or a pause, on her deportation after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on May 30 said she had to self-deport and return to her home country of El Salvador.
The request for a stay has been received and is being considered by ICE, Ruano said. Her understanding is that she can remain in the U.S. while the request is being processed. But it was not clear how long it would take to be processed.
A big caveat is that ICE is not prevented from carrying out the deportation while the request is being processed, Christopher said.
Also, it was not immediately clear how much longer Ruano could stay in the U.S. if the request for a stay were granted.
'Ms. Ruano and her legal advocates remain hopeful that ICE will take into account the humanitarian gravity of her case,' Christopher said in a statement.
ICE officers had said they would not wait for Ruano's open application for a trafficking victims' visa to be processed by a different immigration agency. Processing times for those visas can be two years or more.
'All we ask is that she be allowed to stay – at least until her T visa is decided – so she is not sent back into the very danger she fled,' Christopher said.
Alison Dirr of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this story.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: MPS aide Yessenia Ruano learns she may get more time in US
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