Donegal man facing deportation from US waiting three years for green card
A Donegal man facing deportation from the US has been on the waiting list for consideration for a green card for more than three years.
The 40-year-old man, who has been living in the US for more than 15 years after overstaying on a travel visa, was awaiting judgement on a petition for legal residency with the US Citizenship and Immigration Service — the sister agency of America's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE).
The man was recently apprehended by ICE on the back of an historic driving offence and taken into custody at an immigration detention centre.
He is expected to be deported in the coming days. Should that come to pass, he will be banned from re-entering the US for 10 years.
The man's status as having entered America on a travel visa waiver programme, which was voided when he overstayed the 90 days visiting period, means that he can be subjected to immediate deportation without the need for due process.
His legal counsel, experienced Boston immigration lawyer John Foley, said that the man has all but accepted that his deportation is now inevitable.
Petition
Mr Foley said that an extended wait for a green card petition is not unusual. He said he had been confident that the man's application for legal status would be approved given he has two American-born children — sons aged nine and 10.
'It is not unusual that the process could take that long, but it is unusual that ICE wouldn't let it be adjudicated upon," Mr Foley said.
It's a long runway, but I was pretty confident that he would be approved
He said that he had sought for his client, who runs a construction company with a handful of employees, to be allowed wear an ankle bracelet in order that he could stay free and manage his business while awaiting the result of his petition, but to no avail.
'ICE locally said no. They no longer have any flexibility,' Mr Foley said, adding that the immigration enforcement system 'has never been this rigorous, this aggressive, or frankly this scary'.
Describing the current aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration within the US as 'heartless, mean-spirited and un-American", Mr Foley said the current situation would have been 'unthinkable 112 days ago'.
'This situation, like so much under the Trump administration, is a lose-lose for everyone — but particularly so for my client's young family,' he said.
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