Losing legal status
The deportation saga began when Jaquez Estrada lost her DACA status in 2018 after she pleaded guilty in Adams County Court to misdemeanor insurance fraud and felony insurance fraud. Under the agreement, the felony charge would be cleared in 2020 if she complied with the terms of the agreement, leaving only a misdemeanor on her permanent criminal record.
The case was related to her work at an insurance company where a client asked Jaquez Estrada to fudge a figure, Scabavea, who did not represent her in the criminal case, said. She got caught.
“She pleaded guilty because the offer was for a misdemeanor,” he said. “She had no idea that it had immigration consequences.”
A misdemeanor conviction does not automatically result in a DACA recipient losing their status, said Tania Valdez, a fellow at the Immigration Law & Policy Clinic at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.
However, those convicted of felonies, multiple misdemeanors or a “significant misdemeanor” are at risk of losing DACA status, Valdez said.
The felony conviction still shows up on Jaquez Estrada’s record, and ICE deports people for those.
“She was convicted Feb. 21, 2018, in the Adams County (Colorado) Court for felony insurance fraud — for U.S. immigration purposes, a crime involving moral turpitude (CIMT),” Smock wrote in a statement. “Due to her CIMT conviction, her detention was mandatory; she remained in ICE custody from April 4, 2018, until her removal.”
In the spring of 2018, when Jaquez Estrada was checking in with her state probation officer, ICE officers showed up and arrested her. Deportation proceedings were initiated but she was allowed to be free on bond, according to the ACLU, which has been tracking her case.
Soon after, an ICE officer asked her to return to the field office to fix something on her bond paperwork. Jaquez Estrada said she was assured she would not be detained again. But when she showed up, the ICE officer put her back in detention, the ACLU said.
ICE wouldn’t release her on bond a second time, Scabavea said.
When Scabavea got involved, he helped Jaquez Estrada apply for a green card through her husband, a U.S. citizen. Jaquez Estrada also has an 8-year-old daughter Yasailie Saucedo, who is an American, a sister who has been naturalized and parents who are legal residents.
The lawyer also applied for DACA renewal and appealed her deportation order.
None of that prevented her deportation.
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