A gay Mexican man has been arrested by ICE during his hearing on his citizenship application.
Jose “Ivan” Nunez, 37, was detained after a hearing at the Philadelphia office of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) by ICE officials.
Nunez was at the hearing with his husband, Paul Frame, but he was arrested after Frame was ushered out of the hearing meaning that Nunez was taken into federal custody without his husband’s immediate knowledge.
The Mexican was at the USCIS hearing to have his marriage to Frame formerly recognised, and he was successful.
However, his is being detained because he reportedly entered the country illegally in 2010.
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It is “standard practice” for ICE agents to be notified if immigrants with deportation warrants are at USCIS offices, a spokesperson for USCIS confirmed, but Gonzalo Peralta, Nunez’ immigration attorney, said that it is rare people are captured.
He criticised the way the arrest was carried out, noting that prior to the Trump administration it was nearly unheard of the see people detained during proceedings.
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Peralta said: “You approve his marriage, but at the same time you’re trying to contact the very agency that would be in charge of trying to get him out of the country.
“Prior to the Trump administration, we weren’t seeing very many people actually being sought and captured when they’re trying to go through these proceedings.
“It’s only been very recently and with Ivan’s case that we’ve actually seen ICE go into USCIS offices.”
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