In Pennsylvania, ICE staff detained a groom during a wedding

Seven months passed from the engagement party to the wedding of Alexander Parker and Krisha Schmic. The lovers dreamed of creating a happy family and going through life together. The holiday was spoiled: the groom, a native of Guatemala, was detained right during the ceremony.

Фото: Depositphotos

The couple, in love with each other since high school, could not even think that the best day in their life would be destroyed by a phone call from a judge to the US Immigration and Customs Service. But that is exactly what happened. 23 May 2017, Parker and Shmik came to the courtroom in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, where they had to be registered by district judge Elizabeth Beckley, writes Philly.

Parker was born in Guatemala in the 1996 year and was adopted as a baby from the USA during his infancy. He has long become a legitimate permanent resident of the country and applied for a green card in 2017. On his wedding day, he had an identity card issued by the consulate of Guatemala.

When Parker submitted documents to Beckley and her co-workers, the judge said that he could not leave the courthouse and contacted ICE. This was reported in a federal civil rights action lawsuit filed against the judge of the American Union of Civil Liberties (ACLU) of the State of Pennsylvania on Thursday.

Soon the ICE staff arrived, took Parker to a separate room and began questioning about the history of his immigration, as well as checking fingerprints on a scanner. The investigation was short-lived: it was quickly confirmed that Parker was a lawful permanent resident and that there was no reason to detain him.

The episode was first reported in an investigation conducted by Inquirer and ProPublica in 2018, which found that the ICE field office in Philadelphia (also serving Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia) was the most aggressive in the country. This office has arrested more immigrants with no criminal record and no more crimes than any other, thanks in large part to cooperation with state police.

In response to an investigation, the Pennsylvania police recently adopted a policy that prohibits military personnel from asking questions about citizenship during transport stops, as well as detaining or arresting foreign nationals for simply not having documents.

“This should have been the happiest day of Alex and Krisha’s lives,” Reggie Shuford, executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said in a press release. "Instead, it turned into a nightmare because the judge took it upon herself to act as an ICE agent because of Alex's national origin and his alleged race."

Stating that Parker, in her opinion, is in the United States illegally, the judge initially refused to conduct the ceremony, but the couple had already paid a fee, and when the ICE staff released Parker, the wedding took place. According to the lawsuit, Beckley apologized and married lovers. A few days later, the couple discovered that they were expecting a baby.

Since then, the couple moved to Kissimmee, Fla., Where Parker feels "safer from people trying to do something to be deported."

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