NBC News
By Emil Guillermo
July 10, 2015
Daniel
Maher made the best of his second chance after prison, building a
family and finding a good, steady job. But after nearly forty years in
America, he is now facing
possible deportation because of his past crime.
Maher,
a Chinese immigrant, came to America from Macau when he was two. In
1994, at the age of 20, he says he was talked into participating in an
armed robbery, and was
subsequently arrested and convicted. Maher served seven years in
prison, but US officials' attempt to deport him were thwarted when China
wouldn't issue travel documents.
So
after his release, Maher rebuilt his life in California. Now 41, he has
become an environmental advocate and manages the recycling program at
the Ecology Center, a
non-profit in Berkeley. He lives with his girlfriend and children in
Berkeley and considers them family.
But
a renewed effort to identify criminals in America who could potentially
be deported has included Maher in its sweep, and the U.S. has now held
him in a detention facility
since June 2.
"Daniel
and the other people picked up in the ICE raids are everyday people who
have become a trading chip in negotiations between the U.S. and China,"
Anoop Prasad, senior
staff attorney with the Asian Law Caucus, told NBC News. "In return for
cooperation in extraditing people wanted for corruption prosecutions in
China, the US asked for China's cooperation in accepting people for
deportation. As a result they went and started
sweeping up people with old deportation orders like Daniel."
The
joint U.S./China nationwide effort began in April as a way to root out
corrupt Chinese officials and fugitives, believed to be hiding out in
the U.S. where they have
transferred large financial holdings.
But experts say the wide net cast is actually catching people like Maher.
"I
am now sitting detained in a concrete jail cell hundreds of miles away
from my supportive family and friends," Maher wrote on the Asian Law
Caucus website. "I am struggling
to be given very basic human rights."
Virginia
Kice, Western Regional Communications Director/Spokesperson for U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in a statement to NBC News,
confirmed that China
did not provide travel documents for Maher's original deportation in
2001. He was released but ordered to continue to check in with
immigration officials.
"As
a convicted aggravated felon, Mr. Maher remains an enforcement priority
based on his criminal history," the statement continued. "Recently, ICE
Enforcement and Removal
Operations officials in San Francisco were advised it may now be
possible for the agency to obtain a travel document for Mr. Maher. In
light of that, ICE officers took Mr. Maher into custody June 5. He is
being held at a facility in Southern California while
ICE pursues his removal."
But advocates for Maher insist ICE has discretion on the issue of deportation and say they will pursue Maher's release.
Prasad
cites an ICE memo that allows for an exception to be made for
"compelling and exceptional factors that clearly indicate the alien is
not a threat to national security,
border security, or public safety, and should not therefore be an
enforcement priority."
Meanwhile,
Maher's family and friends have also started a petition drive to
immigration officials at ICE to end the deportation efforts for
humanitarian reasons.
"ICE
claims deportations improve public safety," Prasad said. "But we see
time and time again that ICE harms our communities and makes us less
safe by arresting people
like Daniel."
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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