Utah legal permanent resident held in immigration custody for 48 days

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — A Utah legal resident, or ‘green card’ holder, was held in immigration custody for 48 days after returning home from visiting family in Peru.

Junior Dioses is a legal permanent resident of the United States living in Utah, originally from Peru. He told ABC4.com that he has lived in the United States since May 9, 2002. He came when he was 16, and he went to Highland High School for two years.

Dioses owns his own business and employs 11 people. He is married and he has 5 kids, 4 of whom were born in the United States.

He told ABC4.com that he visits his family in Peru every 2-3 months. In April, he was returning from one of these trips when he landed in an airport in Texas. There, he was seeking admission back into the United States, and he was taken into Customs and Border Patrol custody.

“He told me you are being detained,” Dioses said, referring to the customs agent.

Adam Crayk, the attorney representing Dioses, said that Dioses has been travelling internationally for years and that this has never been a problem. Dioses does have two convictions on his record, Crayk said–failure to respond to a police officer, for which Dioses served out his probation and paid all fines owed, and disorderly conduct, which is a misdemeanor, and that is why he was detained.

Dioses spent two days in custody at the airport before he was transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center. He received a notice to appear in immigration court, and deportation proceedings were started.

Crayk told ABC4.com that Dioses’ brother called him and hired him to represent Junior. Crayk said that while Dioses does have convictions on his record, neither of them are deportable offenses. He told ABC4.com that there is established case law about failure to respond to a police officer and disorderly conduct, saying that those are not grounds to deport someone.

Crayk filed a motion to terminate deportation, and a judge granted the motion. The government had an opportunity to file opposition, but they did not. Seven days after the motion was granted, Dioses was released.

Dioses spent a total of 50 days in custody, 2 in the airport and 48 days in immigration custody. He said his time in the immigration detention center in Texas was “crazy.” He described the center, saying that there were 90 people in a “big tank.”

“Crazy inside. Like, there’s a lot of people there. Those guys were fighting. They talk too much… You cannot sleep there,” he said in an interview with ABC4.com.

He also said it was the worst 48 days of his life, and he was thinking, “My kids need me, so I just want to stay here and still be able to see my kids.” 

The tank was clean at least, he said. People there would be paid $1 a day to clean it.

Crayk described the proceedings as “frustrating.” He said that he wished Dioses would have landed in Utah, because immigration prosecutors in Utah are more “responsible,” and they would not have filed deportation proceedings against Dioses.

“If he did not have the recourses, or the monetary ability to retain counsel, chances are he would have ultimately been deported, because they would have followed through.” Crayk said. “He would have appeared in front of the immigration judge, the government would have pushed this through.”

To those who might say that Dioses is a criminal and that he should be deported, Crayk requested that you “think about your definition of a criminal.” He pointed out that neither of Dioses’ convictions were violent, and he never put anyone in danger.

“That’s why we have courts,” Crayk said. He said that there is a system in place to decide who gets put in deportation proceedings, and that people deserve due process.

He also pointed out that taxpayers are the ones paying to incarcerate people like Dioses, and in his case, money was wasted.

Dioses said that he’s scared, and he wants to get his citizenship. He told ABC4.com that he has an appointment for Wednesday to take a citizenship test, and he already passed a practice test, so he is hopeful.

What is ICE?

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was established in 2003 through the Homeland Security Act as an agency within the newly created Department of Homeland Security. It was created in direct response to the events of 9/11.

According to their website, “ICE’s primary mission is to promote homeland security and public safety through the criminal and civil enforcement of federal laws governing border control, customs, trade and immigration.”

ICE has three primary parts, Homeland Security Investigations, Enforcement and Removal Operations, and the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor. People tend to be most familiar with ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, which “upholds U.S. immigration law.”

According to ICE’s website, “ERO manages all aspects of the immigration enforcement process, including identification and arrest, domestic transportation, detention, bond management, and supervised release, including alternatives to detention. In addition, ERO removes undocumented aliens ordered removed from the U.S. to more than 150 countries around the world.”

Changes in immigration under the Trump administration

President Donald Trump has been working to fulfill campaign promises for mass deportations.

In June, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to swiftly deport migrants to countries other than their home countries, removing the opportunity for migrants to challenge those deportations in court. Kilmar Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, and his case became a focal point of much criticism of Trump’s deportation policies.

Late last year, Utah Governor Spencer Cox expressed his support for Trump’s immigration policies, saying that he will work with the federal government to deport migrants who are here illegally, especially those who have committed crimes.

Student visas were revoked from nearly 50 international students in Utah alone earlier this year. In the past, student visas could be revoked if the student broke the law or disobeyed certain policies, but in these incidents, the visas were revoked because students were involved in pro-Palestinian protests or “potential criminal activity,” according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

One international PhD student at BYU had his visa revoked, filed a lawsuit, and then had his visa restored.

Earlier this year, people received threatening emails and letters telling them to leave the country. Many of the people who received these emails were U.S. citizens or were in the country legally, like one Utah immigration attorney who is also a naturalized citizen.