An undocumented Migrant Justice advocate arrested in Burlington has been sent back to Mexico. Cesar Alex Carrillo, 23, accepted a “voluntary departure order” and took a plane out of the U.S. on Monday, according to his attorney, Matt Cameron.
Carrillo, who was arrested by ICE agents in March, fought to get a voluntary departure in lieu of formal deportation as a way of maximizing his chances of returning to the U.S., Cameron told Seven Days. A judge approved the agreement May 1, said Migrant Justice spokesperson Will Lambek.*
It made for “the best possible scenario,” Cameron said, because a voluntary departure does not carry the tarnish of a deportation. Carrillo hopes to get legal clearance to return to Vermont by the end of the year — though the process may take longer, Cameron added.
Carrillo’s wife, Lymarie Deida, 21, and his 4-year-old daughter Solmarie, are both U.S. citizens. They are scraping together money to join Carrillo in Mexico in the coming weeks, said Lambek. Carrillo hails from the Mexican city of Tabasco, though Lambek said he did not know where the family would live.
“We’re going to continue to support Alex and his family so that they’ll be reunited and be back in this community,” said Lambek. “His removal today is a really sad chapter in what’s been a tragic story of ICE targeting activists.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Carrillo in March as he showed up at the Chittenden County courthouse for a DUI hearing. The misdemeanor charge was eventually dismissed.
Enrique Balcazar and Zully Palacios were also arrested in Burlington that same week. They were released on bail and will face deportation proceedings in March 2018, Cameron said.
Because of the DUI charge, a Boston immigration judge ordered that Carrillo be held without bail. He had been detained at a Massachusetts jail.
Upon returning to Mexico, Carrillo could be subject to a 10-year ban from entering the U.S. — unless he can prove that being away from the states would cause “significant hardship.”
Carrillo has already had his marriage visa approved, but he next must file in Mexico for an immigration visa and a “hardship waiver” to have a chance of returning to Vermont, Cameron explained. “I don’t think it has to be explained, with a 4-year-old and a mother that’s completely dependent on his income,” the attorney said.
Carrillo, who has been in the U.S. for seven years, is lucky he’s married to a U.S. citizen, Cameron said. For most immigrants here without documentation, there is no path to citizenship. Many people don’t understand that “there are no papers to file, there are no lines to get in, there’s no way for people to become legal in Vermont,” Cameron said. “There is no process.”
*Correction, May 9, 2017: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that Carrillo bought his own plane ticket. He did not.
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The hardship waiver because his family is dependent on his income doesn’t make sense, especially if they are going to live in Mexico with him where he can provide an income for them. I also wonder why his wife cannot support the family, especially with her extended family in the area.
I’m not saying Alex Carrillo shouldn’t be able to live in the U.S., just that if he would have filed the proper paperwork right away, and didn’t acquire a DUI, he would have avoided a great hardship for his family in the first place.
When did it become alright to let undocumented people enter the United States and ignore their status. I guess when employers decided these people would work cheap and keep their heads low. The Mexican/Central Americans are not the only undocumented people in this country. From what I have been reading there are numerous Chinese, and Asians maybe not as many as the Hispanics but a great number in the US as undocumented. They enter the country legally on a three month Visa, after the Visa expires, they melt into the diaspora..
Palacios and Balcazar also entered the country on a 3 month tourist visa and decided to disobey US laws. Been checking into both these players and have found that they had pretty good lives back in their sovereign states. Balcazar is from Mexico and Palacios is from Peru. Both come from good families and weren’t fleeing some threatening existence. How could anyone call these two kids, “activists,” is beyond me. As a “working class individual,” there is no country I could go to on the entire planet on a 3 month tourist visa, stay indefinitely, and be labeled an “activist,” after disobeying laws pertaining to a sovereign country immigration laws.
Get them and all illegals out.