CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The status of a Perry Township man who faced deportation to his native Mexico on Thursday remained on hold while immigration officials reviewed his case.
Ricardo Ramos -- an undocumented worker in Lake County for the past 16 years and the married father of three U.S. citizen children -- had been told he had to leave the United States by Jan. 1 after he was found driving without a license and was referred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
He then was given a stay of "voluntary departure" until Thursday through the efforts of U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur. Cleveland-based immigration lawyer David Leopold filed a new stay-of-removal request with ICE on Wednesday, "hoping common sense can prevail. I've asked them to exercise the discretion available to them under the law.
"It would be patently unfair, indeed cruel, to force Ricardo's removal when an opportunity for him to earn legal immigration status may be only weeks away in Washington," Leopold said. "He has done as much as he can do by the book."
Advocates say that Ramos, who works two jobs and pays taxes, qualifies for "prosecutorial discretion" under a 2011 memo from former ICE director John Morton that lists various factors the agency is supposed to weigh before deporting someone.
He also would qualify for legal status under all proposals for immigration reform in Congress, Leopold said.
The initial Jan. 1 deportation deadline helped make Ramos a focus of particular attention on the issue of immigration.
On Monday, more than 100 walkers from the area's Latino and Polish communities participated in a 20-mile "pilgrimage" from Lake County to St. Casimir Church in Cleveland, where they prayed for the intercession of Our Lady of Czestochowa, the Polish Madonna.
"We are a community of people supporting his cause to keep this family together," parishioner and Catholic activist Stanislav Zadnik said.
An online email and petition campaign has drawn more than 1,200 signatures in support.