New Yorker wants to be deported a week before receiving a green card

32-year-old immigrant Karina Baylon from Queens, who lives in New York with her husband and three young children, almost waited until she was granted permanent resident status in the United States, but now fears that she can be deported at any time by separating from her family.

Фото: Depositphotos

“I don’t feel safe,” says the woman, who has been legally married to a naturalized American citizen for four years. “I am afraid that I could be arrested at any time and taken away from my children. This can happen anywhere,” the woman is quoted as saying New York Post.

Bailon recently applied for a green card, hoping it would help her stay in the United States legally. She was even assigned a judge to vacate the previous deportation order and schedule an interview for Sept. 13 at the U.S. consulate in her native Mexico—the final step before becoming a citizen.

But in a surprise blow, immigration officials said Bailon's deportation order, issued in 2001 when she was just 15, was legal and Karina should have left the country.

“I just want immigration officials to follow the law and do things right,” Karina says in Spanish. “Now I live in fear.”

Many immigrants mistakenly believe that marriage to an American is all that is required to become legalized in the country. But the law allows immigration agents to reject applications from those who cannot prove they came to the U.S. legally.

Experts say that previous administrations rarely applied these provisions of the law. But under Trump, ICE changed this policy, aggressively targeting everyone who could be expelled under existing laws.

Фото: Depositphotos

Bailon's story is similar to those of many other immigrants who came to America in search of a better life. As a teenager, she fled the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca to reunite with her mother in New York, where she was juggling multiple jobs. After meeting her husband, Lucio Bailon, Karina left her job and took care of her three children - now Stephanie is 9 years old, Daniel is 7 and Lucio is 5. The eldest Lucio, a 30-year-old US citizen, has an official job in the country. The couple lives in Corona.

July 25 New York Immigration Judge Helen Sichel ruled that Karina's deportation order from 2001 of the year was rejected because it did not indicate when the girl should have come for execution. Lawyer Ray Fasano said that Sichel's decision followed the legislative precedent set by Supreme Court Justice Sonja Maria Sotomayor, which prohibits the expulsion of immigrants from the country without documents, using incorrect deportation orders.

But on August 16, ICE filed an expedited appeal - agents told the lawyer that they could deport Bailon at any time in the next 30 days. The lawyer considers this decision “outrageous.”

“She has an interview in two weeks, and instead of acting on the same orders and recommendations that they previously gave to Karina, they are pursuing an appeal under the expedited procedure.”

Fasano says this is the first time in 22 years of practice that he has seen paperwork for an expedited appeal from ICE to remove an immigrant. The lawyer is sure that they intend to deport Karina “quickly.”

“I don’t have confidence anymore,” Bailon says. “But because of my children, this is my country now.”

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