CLAIM: DHS HAS “A PATTERN OF LYING”
by Sharon Rondeau
(Apr. 22, 2017) — A group of advocates for “undocumented” aliens claimed on a media conference call on Thursday that the 23-year-old DACA recipient removed to Mexico in February whose case has received national attention was deported to Mexico on two different occasions by U.S. Border Patrol agents.
“DACA,” or “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals,” was launched by the Obama regime in August 2012 by executive action and allows approved “undocumented” applicants to work or attend school in the U.S. Applicants must have been brought to the U.S. by family members when they were 16 or younger and cannot have been convicted of a felony.
Immigration advocates claimed during the call that Juan Manuel Montes, aka Juan Manuel Montes-Bojorquez, was apprehended on the evening of February 17, 2017 by a Border Patrol agent, questioned for approximately three hours, and deported without any type of due process because he did not have documentation about his status on his person.
They reported that according to Montes, he was robbed and beaten after having been sent to Mexico through the Calexico Port of Entry, after which he attempted to re-enter the U.S. He was reportedly sent back to Mexico, after which he reportedly re-entered and was deported on February 20.
A lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Border Patrol, has been filed on Montes’s behalf for documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and reportedly not released timely.
Last Tuesday, DHS reportedly told USA Today that it did not find Montes listed as a DACA enrollee, but on Wednesday, it issued a formal statement to say that he was enrolled in the program through January 2018. An inquiry sent to spokeswoman Gillian Christensen on Wednesday evening by The Post & Email did not receive a response.
The advocates for Montes claim that DHS and the Border Patrol have not been forthcoming about what happened to Montes. They reported that due to national attention, DHS released a “paltry” amount of documentation on Thursday.
They additionally contended that in general, copies of documents a deportee is asked to sign are not provided to them and that the process is not explained as it unfolds.
DHS claimed in its Wednesday press release that Montes voluntarily left the country, then attempted to re-enter on February 19 and was deported on the afternoon of February 20. Departure from the U.S. without the knowledge and approval of DACA officials is prohibited under the rules of the program.
DHS maintained that it could find no record of contact with Montes prior to February 19.
Reporters who participated in the call represented ABC News, NBC News, The Washington Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN and NPR. The audio of the conference call is posted at latinousa.org.
The advocates indicated that they are pleased that Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who Trump termed “a Mexican” during the campaign, will be presiding over the civil suit stemming from Montes’s deportation. Trump also indicated that he believed that Curiel held a bias against him as he presided over a lawsuit filed against his then-defunct Trump University.
Trump ultimately settled the case after winning the 2016 presidential election.
The Trump administration has taken a much more aggressive stance against illegal aliens present in the U.S., particularly in regard to criminal illegals convicted of violent crimes.
