Massachusetts

Derby Dad Granted Temporary Stay Following Deportation Order

Protesters came out this week to support 52-year-old Luis Barrios, who left Guatemala more than two decades ago and was expected to be deported back to the country as soon as Thursday morning.

On Wednesday, Barrios was granted a 30-day stay.

“It's 25 years ago (that) I left my country, I don’t know how is Guatemala now, it’s very dangerous,” Barrios told NBC Connecticut.

Barrios said he has been on the radar of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, since police pulled him over in 2011 because a taillight on his truck was out. He explained that he had been authorized to work in the country over the years, but recently has been labeled as a threat.

"Now, they decide I'm a dangerous person in this country," Barrios said. "I'm very sad because I don't have any problems with nobody."

He had a deportation order to take a one-way 4 a.m. flight from New York to Guatemala on Thursday. U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy wrote to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, seeking reconsideration of the decision to deport Barrios.

"Fifteen minutes ago, I got off the phone with Luis Barrios and informed him that he would not have to board a plane tonight," Blumenthal said in a statement following a press release on Thursday.

According to the New Haven Register, Barrios fears going back to Guatemala since his father and brother were killed in the country.

Barrios' last attempt to stay in the country was denied, the paper reports, ever since he missed a court date to determine an asylum request in 1998. Barrios said he missed the hearing because the notification was sent to an address where he no longer lived, the Register reported. 

Hartford police arrested 19 people during a protest outside the federal building Tuesday as activists fought the order to deport the Derby father of four.

Police said 200 to 250 people protested outside the Abraham Ribicoff Federal Building in Hartford, the Hartford Field Office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The 19 people, who are from Hartford, New Haven, West Haven, Waterbury, Middletown in Connecticut, as well as from Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Ohio, Wisconsin, have been charged with first-degree criminal trespass and disorderly conduct.

“It does not appear that Mr. Barrios poses a threat to the integrity of the immigration system. Mr. Barrios has no aggravated felonies, felonies, or misdemeanors in the United States, is a productive and valued member of his community, and has four U.S. citizen children. Based on these factors, we respectfully ask that his request for prosecutorial discretion be granted,” the senators wrote.

Organizers said the protest was a civil disobedience action.

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