Florida College Student Facing Deportation Released

Courtesy of SWER

Bangladesh native, Shamir Ali, now 25, was picked up in a workplace raid in Miami last week and now faces deportation. Ali arrived to Florida when he was seven years old and is DREAM Act eligible.

College student Shamir Ali has been released from a Florida detention center after being told he would be deported to Bangladesh.

The decision comes after Nestor Yglesias, spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Miami told StateImpact Florida Ali was a “fugitive alien” because he ignored a previous deportation order.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are letting Ali, 25, stay in the U.S. for one year with supervision, according to DREAM Act activist Felipe Matos with Students Working for Equal Rights.

In August, the Obama administration announced a new policy to place more priority on deporting undocumented criminals, and less priority on undocumented students who came to the U.S. at a young age.

DREAM Act activists protested Ali’s deportation order last week, calling the decision a “clear contradiction” to the Obama administration’s latest immigration policy. The DREAM Act is a proposed federal bill which would make it easier for undocumented students to earn legal status in the U.S. if they came to the country while young and had plans to attend a U.S. college or serve in the U.S. military.

StateImpact Florida did this story in August about how a lack of clear federal policy opened the door for influence peddling in the immigration system. The latest policy memo from the White House was meant to close that door.