Did Jessica Colotl Wrongfully Have Her DACA Status Revoked?
In a photo provided by Ms. Colotl, sorority sisters from Lambda Theta Alpha at a rally supporting her in May 2010.
Are Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients safe in the Trump era of increased enforcement and little generosity toward long term undocumented residents ? A number have been threatened with removal. bUt President Trump has told DACA recipients not to worry.
Miriam Jordan for the New York Times reports on Jessica Colotl, who was detained for 37 days and nearly sent back to Mexico after an Atlanta-area police officer caught her driving without a license in 2010, and has been notified that her DACA status has been revoked.. (Here is another report on this story in The Daily Caller.). In 2010, “[t]o supporters, including her sorority sisters, the president of her college and the immigrant advocates who publicized her case, hers was an example of police overreach and the need to safeguard ambitious young students from deportation. To others, she was an illegal immigrant, plain and simple, who also was abusing the system by attending a public college at discounted tuition.”
Colotl was released. She returned to and graduated from Kennesaw State and secured DACA relief.
Colotl learned earlier this week that her DACA status had been revoked.
Dustin Baxter, Colotl’s lawyer, requested that a federal judge in Atlanta intervene and reinstate her DACA protection.
After her 2010 arrest for driving without a license, Colotl had been charged with providing a false address to a law enforcement officer, a felony. She admitted guilt and had the case dismissed after completing community service, a common outcome for low-level offenses.
While the Obama administration allowed Colotl into the program in 2013 — and allowed her to renew in 2015 — the new administration appears less willing to overlook her record.
“Jessica Colotl, an unlawfully present Mexican national, admitted guilt to a felony charge in August 2011 of making a false statement to law enforcement in Cobb County, Ga.,” said an ICE statement. “Ms. Colotl was subsequently allowed to enter a diversionary program by local authorities; however, under federal law her guilty plea is considered a felony conviction for immigration purposes.”
With the assistance of attorneys, Colotl is challenging the revocation of her DACA status.
UPDATE (May 13): This article describes why DACA recipients are in “resting easy” as the Trump administration ramps up immigration enforcement.
KJ