Miguel Araujo Castañeda, community leader and owner of a Mexican food restaurant in the San Francisco Bay area, has the clock against him since the Federal Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit gave him 45 days for you to leave the country of your own free will. The 31 August deadline.
This is of the same appeals court as in 2018, allowed him to stay while it was resolved his request for political asylum, but this summer said court ratified the deportation orders and the denial of protection given by the immigration courts.
“I have been ordered to leave the country and I feel completely disappointed in the system and especially because I thought that migration issues were going to be handled differently under Biden’s administration,” said Araujo, owner of Araujo’s restaurant in San Bruno, California.
“There is a contradiction because they said they would only deport highly dangerous criminals. ”
Araujo de 71 years old, came to the country in 1963 and in 1980 opened his Mexican food restaurant one mile from San Francisco International Airport, which has been kept open through thick and thin, despite the pandemic and having already been arrested twice by agents of the Immigration and Customs Service (ICE).
The first time he was arrested was on 11 September 2009. About 10 agents broke into his restaurant and took him away.
After eight months in a Yuba County jail in Northern California, he was released on 18 May 2010 with an electronic monitoring bracelet the 24 hours of the day, which she had been tied to her ankle for six years.
In 2018, Araujo was detained again by ICE agents due to a note issued by Interpol, but was released due to lack of evidence on an alleged charge of conspiring to commit a crime in Mexico in 2003.
The San Francisco public defender’s office took charge of his defense and achieved his freedom after 7 months of immigration detention.
“I am not a criminal. It was an injustice what they did to me. The same judge said that the red note and the evidence presented did not prove the accusations, “he declared then.
The restaurateur has a strong track record lobbying by the community. He created the Centro Azteca, an organization fighting for the rights of immigrants and for years he fought for driver’s licenses for the undocumented in California, participating in marches and rallies in favor of this document and other issues related to immigrants.
Juan José Gutiérrez, leader of the organization One Stop Immigration Center , said it is very pitiful that a member distinguished and with a recognized career in the community as Araujo, his freedom is affected and he may be deported.
“Under the pretext of the ruling of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, ICE could expel him from the country. So we are going to help him on all fronts so that this does not happen. ”
He added that Araujo has nothing to do in Mexico. “ His wife and children are US citizens. Here he runs his business and he is a person of more than 70 years, in addition to being sick, he has to take care of his wife, who is in very poor health ” .
In addition, he pointed out that for years, Araujo has financed a community radio program in San Francisco from his own purse.
He said that it is time for him to finish his migratory viacrucis and to be granted a stay in the country because his life is here.
Rosalba J. Araujo, wife and mother of Araujo’s children, suffers from diabetes, is on dialysis three times a week and does not He has control of his sphincters, so it is the restaurateur who takes care of his hygiene and personal care directly.
Araujo revealed that he will present a request to Senator Alex Padilla and Congresswoman Jackie Speier to to have their deportation suspended through what is known as a private bill private bill ).
Gutiérrez considered that the demand for political asylum for Araujo has all the merits if one takes into account that his brother Antonio was assassinated in the state of Michoacán, after running for mayor of his hometown, and also in his wife’s family, his grandfather and uncle were killed.
“The conditions of violence and crime in the Mexican state of Michoacán have not improved. On the contrary, they have exploded and are out of control. All the more reason to give him the protection of political asylum, which leads to the restoration of his resident card that he lost in this entire process of immigration arrests. ”
He added that during the Biden administration,“ we are badly in all areas of migration, except for the issue of naturalization for which a large amount of resources are being allocated, which will allow more residents to become citizens. ”
This month, the Biden administration ordered deportation procedures for asylum-seeking families to be expedited in 11 cities across the country, including Los Angeles.