ARRESTED IN AMERICA
detainees at the Elizabeth center and other facilities, said it’s
hard to know why the authorities
detained Campos when they did.
“We don’t know how they work,”
she said. “It’s so random.”
Harold Ort, a spokesman for
the New Jersey branch of ICE,
said that ICE considered Campos
a priority for removal because of
his 1995 deportation. The agency is focused on the removal of
“convicted criminal aliens, recent border crossers and immigration fugitives who have failed
to comply with final orders of
removal issued by the nation’s
immigration courts,” he said.
ICE is still reviewing the case,
he added, noting that the agency
“exercises prosecutorial discre-
HUFFINGTON
02.02.14
tion on a case-by-case basis.”
Derek DeCosmo, the attorney
who represents Campos and the
vice chairman of the New Jersey chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association,
questioned the fairness of detaining Campos instead of requiring
him to report to an immigration
office on a regular basis, as his
wife is required to do.
“You’re talking about a deportation order that is 18 years old,” he
said. “In those last 18 years, what
have you done here? You have
had three kids born here. You’ve
started your business. It’s a business you’ve paid taxes on. ICE
might say he broke the law and is
absconding, but from Oscar’s perspective, that’s out of line.”
DeCosmo stressed that the decision is especially puzzling given
that all three of Campos’ children
The Elizabeth
detention
center
houses up
to 300
undocumented
immigrants
at a time.