HONOLULU (AP) – A Hawaii coffee farmer who entered the United States illegally from Mexico nearly three decades ago has been granted a 30-day reprieve on a deportation order.
Andres Magana Ortiz must return to the country he left at 15 if efforts to halt his deportation aren’t successful, said his lawyer, James Stanton.
Magana Ortiz was ordered to have a bag packed and turn himself to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security office in Honolulu Thursday morning.
“He’s agreed to leave voluntarily at his own expense,” Stanton said after they met with immigration officials for several hours. “They understand that we’re working on other channels to get a stay and they’ll respect that if we get it. If are unable to get it, he understands that he’ll go back to Mexico.”
Ortiz’s case gained attention after a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge criticized the Trump administration’s order to deport him. “President Trump has claimed that his immigration policies would target the ‘bad hombres,’ ” Judge Stephen Reinhardt said in an opinion issued last week. “The government’s decision to remove Magana Ortiz shows that even the ‘good hombres’ are not safe.”