Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego vows to help Peoria business owner detained by ICE

PHOENIX — U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona said the detainment of a Peoria business owner by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was deeply unfair and does nothing to keep the country safe.

“Why are we using our time, our money and efforts to go after people like Kelly Yu?” Gallego asked KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Outspoken with Bruce and Gaydos on Wednesday.

Yu, a West Valley business owner who illegally entered the U.S. to escape China’s one-child policy 21 years ago, was detained in late May at a monthly meeting with immigration officials.

Gallego argued that undocumented immigrants with no criminal record, like Yu, should be allowed to pay a fine, pass a background check and gain some legal standing.

“But we don’t necessarily have to give her even any type of citizenship,” he said. “I think that would still put our values together as Americans.”

Instead, Yu is being held at ICE Eloy Detention Center and her removal from the U.S. has been ordered.

Are ICE agents going after nonviolent migrants to meet quotas?

Gallego said many of the ICE agents he is friends with dislike detaining people like Yu, who her family says donates to public services and is a pillar of the West Valley community.

“This is a new world that they’re not liking and they’re not used to, and they think it’s an abuse of the system,” he said. “(They) are basically told, ‘You will get us deportations or people or heads will roll.'”

Because leaders in the Trump administration, such as White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, demands high numbers of deportations, many ICE agents are disincentivized from pursuing violent criminals and opt to pursue soft targets to get their numbers up, according to Gallego.

“What happened was Stephen Miller … basically put a quota and said, ‘I don’t care how you get these guys, but I want to make sure you get at least 300 deportations per day.’ And that’s what happened to Miss Yu. They basically saw her as an easy target,” he said.

Ruben Gallego wants to help Peoria business owner detained by ICE

Gallego said he wants to help Yu because she wants to become a U.S. citizen and is a productive member of her community.

“I’m going to look at everything I can do to help her and whether it’s passing individual legislation or really trying to even strike any type of deal with Trump, President Trump and Republicans to save these types of people,” he said.

While Gallego is grateful that the Trump administration is cracking down on crime, he said he wants the federal government to give grace to people like Yu, who have no criminal records, have been in the U.S. for 10 years or more and are willing to pay a fine and get in the back of the line.

“We’re separating a family unnecessarily. This is not what was intended to happen,” Gallego said. “Why aren’t we using our resources to go after these cartel members, these gang members, these exploiting these communities?”

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