Phoenix father of 3 taken into custody, deported during check-in with immigration
Mar 3, 2017, 2:54 PM | Updated: Mar 4, 2017, 9:58 am
(Screenshot)
(Screenshot)
PHOENIX — A construction worker with three children was taken into custody and deported by immigration authorities this week after he went to his regular check-in, according to his family.
Juan Carlos Fomperosa Garcia, 44, is the second Valley undocumented immigrant to be deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement since President Donald Trump’s immigration executive order.
A working Phoenix mother of two, Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, was deported to Mexico in February after showing up for her regular appointment with ICE.
Trump’s executive order increased the number of undocumented residents subject to speedy deportation whether they had committed major or minor crimes or were even suspected of having committed a crime. One of Fomperosa’s daughters said he had a worker’s permit and had been seeking asylum.
“He’s not one of those people … that President (Donald) Trump says. He’s not a rapist, he’s not a drug dealer and he’s not a murderer,” daughter Yennifer Sanchez said Thursday night at a press conference that was posted online.
“He’s a family man,” Sanchez said.
An Arizona immigrants’ rights group, Living for United Change, said Fomperosa left home before a family birthday party to go to the ICE office for a check-in.
Once there, he was detained. He was deported to Nogales, Mexico on Friday.
In a statement, ICE officials said Fomperosa had been previously sent back to Mexico three times, including being formally deported in 2014. He was charged with a federal misdemeanor the following year, though the statement did not specify the crime.
Federal court records show he pleaded guilty in July 2015 to attempted illegal entry, a misdemeanor, after attempting to cross a border crossing in San Luis, Arizona, using somebody else’s documents. He was sentenced to 30 days in prison.
In 2014, a man named Juan Fomperosa Garcia filed a petition against the Justice Department with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The type of lawsuit was not specified.
Yennifer Sanchez said her father, detained by ICE, had a work permit. (Screenshot)
Besides Sanchez, 23, Fomperosa is the father of a 17-year-old son and a 14-year-old daughter. All of Fomperosa Garcia’s children are U.S. citizens. Sanchez said their father has been in the country for 20 years.
“My father is an honest, working man, a family man, that loves everyone he meets,” she said.
Sanchez says she’s not sure what will happen next but that she will continue to work and her siblings will stay in school.
“People will have to go and check in, but it’s important that families know, they should think about a plan for what happens after that check-in if that person is taken into custody,” Abril Gallardo, a LUCHA organizer sitting with the young women, said.
