Houston father wins reprieve from deportation

Jenny Rodriguez had just spoken with Congress in early April about how much she's struggled since her husband was deported, leaving her alone in Houston with their four children. A week later the 28-year-old father was caught again near McAllen trying to come back.

Immigration authorities had deported Henry Alvarado in February after a routine traffic stop revealed he was here illegally. But under new guidelines the Obama administration issued last year, lawyers say he never should have been. Alvarado had lived in Houston for a decade and held no criminal record other than two minor traffic tickets.

Finding himself suddenly back in Honduras, Alvarado felt he had no choice but to cross the border illegally once more to see his American-born children - even if it meant risking any chance of ever being able to stay here permanently.

Then this week, in an extremely rare move, the government granted him a stay and released him from custody, tacitly acknowledging he shouldn't have been deported in the first place. Now he can live here legally for at least a year and even obtain a work permit.

"I'm very happy," Rodriguez said minutes after her husband was released from the Port Isabel detention center.

Immigration lawyers and advocates lauded the decision but said the saga is disturbing because it shows how Obama's new directives aren't being followed, leading to the deportation of precisely those immigrants the president had promised to shield.

"It's certainly extremely unusual ... and the fact that they are willing to do that is an indication that they made a mistake," said Greg Chen, director of advocacy for the American Immigration Lawyers Association in Washington, D.C. "It's also unfortunate that it took the intervention of a lawyer, months of advocacy, and the intervention by members of Congress and the media."

A spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not return emails inquiring about the case.

Rules 'in full force'

The new guidelines narrowing the scope of who should be deported went into effect after the president upended the nation's immigration system in a historic speech in November. He promised to grant work permits to nearly 5 million people and focus on deporting only serious criminals and immigrants who had recently come here illegally. A Brownsville federal judge has temporarily halted the work program, and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is considering whether to allow it to continue.

But ICE itself has said the new guidelines for deportation "remain in full force" and that the agency conducted a series of mandatory training for all personnel and "repeatedly" discussed the issue with its field office directors.

President Barack Obama, too, has promised there would be consequences for agents with ICE and Border Patrol who aren't following the new directives. He said immigrants like Alvarado who would have qualified for the work permits remain safe despite the legal wrangling because they're no longer priorities for deportation.

"We are going to be focusing on criminals. We're going to be focusing on potential felons ... we are not prioritizing families," Obama said at a Miami town hall in February. "Even with (the) legal uncertainty, they should be in a good place."

But lawyers across the country say that's not happening and that immigration authorities continue to wrongly detain, even deport, immigrants who should now be protected. They said part of the problem is that some ICE and Border Patrol agents don't agree with the new directives and don't want to abide by them. The head of the ICE union, for instance, has himself sued the Obama administration over its 2012 program granting work permits to certain young immigrants in the country illegally. A federal judge dismissed the case, and this month an appeals court upheld that decision.

Even when ICE has instituted revised deportation guidelines in the past, the implementation varied widely, lawyers say, because as an enforcement agency ICE is predisposed to being more, not less, punitive. "In the past, ICE has at best implemented new enforcement priorities inconsistently," said Chen of the lawyers association. "Now we have a new memo and early on there are signs that ICE rank-and-file are not implementing this one either."

Groups complain

Dozens of immigrant and legal groups sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Jonson on April 15 saying they are concerned about "numerous reports" indicating ICE and Border Patrol aren't complying with the new enforcement priorities. It urged the administration institute "more robust" training methods, accountability mechanisms and oversight for all DHS components, particularly for ICE.

The letter cited Alvarado's case, saying he was deported even though as a longtime resident with no criminal record and American children who hadn't recently crossed the border or been ordered deported he fit into none of the categories ICE is now supposed to focus on. Before Obama's changes, he would have been considered a priority because he'd previously been deported in 2005. But that had now changed.

Unlike many immigrants who often can't afford or don't know to obtain counsel, Alvarado hired a Brownsville attorney. In several conversations with ICE agents and three letters to the agency, Norma Sepulveda requested his release, noting he wasn't a priority for deportation and would qualify for the work permit program. She sent evidence to prove he is eligible, including school records showing he is the sole legal guardian for two of his children, whose mother abandoned them when they were small.

Initially, Sepulveda said, ICE agents at the Port Isabel detention center, where Alvarado was held, said they needed more time. In January, they told her he was likely eligible for the work permit program and would be released soon. Then they asked for more information.

On Feb. 25, without informing Sepulveda, federal agents flew Alvarado back to Honduras.

In March, an ICE spokeswoman said the agency conducted a "thorough review" of Alvarado's case, determining he was indeed "an agency priority" but declining to say why.

Long shot paid off

Meanwhile, Alvarado's wife took the fight to Washington, D.C., speaking at two congressional briefings organized by immigration attorneys. Sepulveda worked on other legal strategies to try to allow him to return.

But in Honduras, Alvarado was attacked by gangs. And he worried about his children. This week he called Sepulveda to say he'd been caught again and was back in detention. On Tuesday she filed to stay his removal.

She knew it was a long shot. They are rarely granted. And because Alvarado crossed the border illegally this year, he now is a deportation priority under Obama's memo. Wednesday, the stay was granted.

"It was just approved because this was an error," Sepulveda said. "They messed up, but Obama hasn't said anything about what are the consequences of ICE not following directives ... I think there's a lot of people who have been removed and shouldn't have been."

Minutes after being released Thursday evening, Alvarado said by phone that he was exhausted but happy.

"I'm with my family," he said. "Everything has turned out just like I asked God. You don't know how difficult it's been."