tags: , , , , Blog

Manolo and Family Granted ‘Deferred Action’

Share This:

It’s official—the thousands of faxes we all sent to ICE will allow Manolo and his family to stay in the country for another year!

Just over a month ago, we told you about Manolo, a young Chinese-American who would qualify for the DREAM Act.  

Manolo was brought to the US from Venezuela when he was just two years old and grew up in Tennessee. He graduated from high school with honors, and earned a BA from Middle Tennessee State University.

However, this spring, despite all of Manolo’s achievements and contributions to his community, Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) tried to send Manolo to Venezuela. They wanted to deport him to a country he didn’t know or speak the language.

But together we responded. Working with organizers in Tennessee, we quickly sent thousands of messages to ICE and demanded that they stop Manolo’s deportation.

And last week we received some excellent news. ICE granted Manolo and his family deferred action, a special humanitarian status, which ICE can grant to immigrants in “extremely compelling humanitarian” cases. This special status will allow Manolo to remain in the United States for another year.

But Manolo (and the 800,000 young people in similar situations) need a permanent solution. President Obama has repeatedly said that his administration’s immigration enforcement priority is to target violent criminals and their job is keep families together.

Yet, when you look at cases like Manolo’s, it seems officials in his administration haven’t gotten the memo.

So, again we are responding. We are sending thousands of messages to the White House asking President Obama to stop the deportations of young people, like Manolo, who qualify for the DREAM Act, and we need your help. So, if you haven’t already, please sign our petition to Obama now.