SAN FRANCISCO — A federal choose on Tuesday mentioned she is going to quickly challenge a ruling in a case that would probably give a Livermore father deported to Mexico a path again to the U.S. to be reunited along with his household.
For Miguel Lopez, who was deported this previous summer time, the choice within the U.S. District Courtroom of Northern California might be his final probability to return to the Tri-Valley, the place he raised his household and labored as a welder at a winery.
U.S. District Decide Trina Thompson, after listening to from Lopez’s legal professional and an assistant U.S. legal professional, took the arguments underneath submission and expects to challenge a tentative or full order by the following court docket date set for Oct. 30. Lopez, who resides outdoors of Mexico Metropolis, didn’t remotely attend the Tuesday afternoon listening to held in a San Francisco federal courtroom.
Afterward, Lopez’s legal professional, Saad Ahmad, mentioned he seen the listening to as a constructive step ahead for Lopez’s case.
“I think we have a chance. I do believe we have a chance,” Ahmad mentioned. “The judge wants this case to be decided.”
Elizabeth Kurlan, an assistant U.S. legal professional, declined to remark outdoors of the courtroom.
Lopez mounted a authorized protection after he was detained whereas showing at a standing listening to in San Francisco’s immigration court docket, taken to Bakersfield and dropped off by federal authorities on the U.S.-Mexico border close to Tijuana in June.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s swift elimination of Lopez, then 46, got here the evening earlier than Decide Thompson ordered that he be allowed to stay within the U.S., writing that the scenario dripped with “inequalities.”
On Tuesday, Kurlan had hunted for the choose to dismiss Lopez’s case on grounds that his legal professional’s arguments had been “moot.”
Ahmad countered that Lopez by no means had a chance to argue for everlasting residency and that his rights had been violated when he was whisked away and not using a correct listening to. In response to Ahmad, an immigration choose granted him the appropriate to remain within the U.S. in 2012, solely to have one other court docket reverse course in 2014. He additional argued that the district court docket ought to have jurisdiction over the matter, calling Lopez’s case “very unique.”
Earlier than she makes a willpower, Thompson requested that Ahmad present case regulation he cited at Tuesday’s listening to.
Lopez, in the meantime, was visited final month by Congressman Eric Swalwell, whose district contains Livermore. On Sept. 10, Swalwell wrote a invoice, H.R. 5294, petitioning Congress to grant Lopez citizenship and permit him to return to the US.
The invoice is awaiting approval by the U.S. Home of Representatives.
Verify again for updates to this creating story.
