When Pascual Pedro Pedro immigrated to eastern Iowa from Guatemala seven years ago, he was given an official order of expedited removal, but allowed to remain in the country under special supervision.
The expedited removal order would have been enough to deport him on the spot — it's a process that allows Immigration Customs and Enforcement agents to deport immigrants without a hearing before an immigration judge.
But the order for supervision that he received around the same time allowed him to stay in the U.S. and meant he would have to check in with immigration enforcement officials in Cedar Rapids every year. The meetings were mainly to ensure Pedro Pedro was abiding by the terms of his supervision and obeying the law, both of which he was.
In fact, he had never received so much as a speeding ticket in the seven years he had been in the United States.
Now, Pedro Pedro is back in Guatemala, after ICE officers detained him at his yearly check in on July 1.
“He came seven years ago as a kid, and just seeing him become the man that he’s become — a high school graduate, a hard worker, a church member — it's hard to see someone I knew so well in youth ... it’s difficult to comprehend and understand,” said Rev. Guillermo Trevino Jr. of St. Joseph Catholic Church in West Liberty, where Pedro Pedro and his family went to mass.
ICE officials first removed Pedro Pedro’s order for supervision, leaving him vulnerable to deportation under his existing order for expedited removal. He was transported to the Muscatine County jail and lost touch with his family Saturday afternoon, according to a press release from the nonprofit Escucha Mi Voz.
Pedro Pedro’s lawyer, Timothy Farmer, said ICE did not give a reason for his arrest. A Muscatine County jail operator confirmed Pedro Pedro had been booked on immigration related charges.
Over the weekend, Farmer said he had been working on an application for a request for stay to try to pause deportation proceedings, which would have required discretionary approval from ICE officials to allow him to remain in the country.
“We are just asking them to reinstate the status quo and kind of go back to the way things were,” Farmer said before finding out about Pedro Pedro’s deportation. “We have filled out the application for the stay of removal and included pretty voluminous supporting evidence. The community of West Liberty really stepped up in a huge way.”
The night before, Escucha Mi Voz held a community prayer vigil for Pedro Pedro in West Liberty, which hundreds of people attended.
“I’ve filed a number of these applications,” Farmer said. “And I’ve never seen a community step up to support somebody the way West Liberty has. So I think it just goes to show that Pascual is the kind of person that we really want to have here in our community.”
On Monday morning, a member of Escucha Mi Voz delivered the application to an immigration customs office in Omaha. But by then, it was already too late.
Around that time, the group became aware that Pedro Pedro had already been deported, and that he had called his family from Guatemala City, less than a week after he had been detained.
“If we didn’t have the holiday weekend, we might have been able to get the application filed on Friday of last week, but even that would have been real tough to get everything together that we did that quickly,” Farmer said.
In recent months, ICE has increased its use of the expedited removal process, which has in some cases allowed the agency to deport people before any legal action can be taken.
"This is a travesty, there was no due process and our message is bring him back now,” said Trevino.
Pedro Pedro's family is demanding answers for his arrest. Escucha Mi Voz announced two “Bring Him Home” events in Cedar Rapids Wednesday in front of the ICE office, and in Davenport Thursday at the Congressional offices of 1st District Rep. Mariannette Miller Meeks and U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst.
