BUTLER COUNTY, Ohio (WKRC) – Protests Sunday night and Monday morning took place outside of the Butler County jail. That led to one arrest.
Protestors on Sunday were there because of 19-year-old Emerson Colindres, who was detained by ICE last week. Colindres has been in the United States since he was eight years old.
The journey for Colindres, his younger sister and mother started in 2014 when they came to the United States from Honduras seeking asylum.
Court records filed in February of last year in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said Colindres’ mother, Ada Bell Baquedano-Amador, applied for asylum. She based her request for that on gang activities in Honduras.
Neil Fleischer is an immigration lawyer with the Fleischer Law Firm.
“Looks like they all went to immigration court, where the judge found that the family, the mother, did not have a winnable well-founded fear of persecution, so they denied the asylum claim,” said Fleischer.
While he didn’t represent the family, he walked Local 12 through what took place in court.
“It’s interesting in this case the judge did find the mother credible, the problem is they did not think that what had happened to the mother or her family rose to the level of persecution under U.S. asylum laws,” said Fleischer.
Multiple appeals were filed.
“They then appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals, who sustained the removal order,” said Fleischer. “Similarly, the Sixth Circuit, which you know is the second highest court in the United States did also sustain the removal. “
Fleischer said based on that result, the deportation order was in effect and the government was now executing it.
He said a valid asylum claim must include a fear of one of the five protected grounds.
“Which are race, religion, nationality political opinion, that’s why where we get the term political asylum as many call it or importantly membership in a particular social group,” said Fleischer. “My assumption is they were going for a particular social group and they were unable to articulate a valid PSG in this case therefore not entitled to protections under U.S. asylum law.”
Fleischer said cases like this are common.
“Most of the people that are coming up through the southern border are fleeing gang violence in their home country, however, unless they’re able to express a particular social group that they belong to, and that particular social group has to be based on immutable characteristics, that cannot be changed, most of these claims are denied,” said Fleischer.
Colindres remains in the Butler County Jail on Monday night.
His mother has been told she has 30 days to leave the U.S. on her own.
