MySanAntonio.com by Jason Buch
The government's decision Wednesday not to kick out of the country former Jefferson High School valedictorian and DREAM Act poster child Benita Veliz is a rare instance of new deportation guidelines being implemented in San Antonio.
Immigration authorities agreed to close proceedings against Veliz, a 26-year-old graduate of St. Mary's University, five months after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton released a memo that sets out factors that prosecutors should take into account when deciding who will be deported.
The decision to drop the case against Veliz, who was put into deportation proceedings in January 2009 after being pulled over by a Helotes police officer and arrested for not having a license, was rare, immigration attorneys said.
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Veliz became an important figure in the movement to pass the DREAM Act — short for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act — in 2009 when a column ran in the New York Times with the headline “Don't Deport Benita Veliz.” She's since traveled to speak about the movement and was involved in efforts to sway Texas Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to vote for the act, which died in the Senate last year.
Despite the good news for Veliz, immigration attorneys said they've seen little change in ICE policy since Morton released the memo laying out criteria prosecutors should take into account.
Those criteria include how long immigrants have been in the country, how old they were when they entered the country, whether they're pursing education and whether they or an immediate relative served in the U.S. military. Shivers said it's unusual in San Antonio for immigration authorities to exercise prosecutorial discretion, a power they've had for years, in such cases.
congradulations Benita!!
Posted by: Reynavd | 09/04/2012 at 11:05 PM