Allan Appel Photo
Connecticut’s governor and two U.S. senators raced to New Haven Monday afternoon to plea for a reprieve from a deportation order for a woman who’s keeping her ill 12-year-old daughter alive.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal made the appeal at a press conference at the Quinnipiack Club on behalf of Miriam Martinez-Lemus, who fled the violence of Guatemala and has built a life here, without legal permission, over decades. The officials called the press conference in response by a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) decision not to grant a reprieve of a deportation order requiring Martinez-Lemus to leave the U.S. Monday.
Along with her husband Luis Raphael Benavides, Martinez-Lemus is the prime care-giver for 12-year-old Brianna, who has a potentially life-threatening case of juvenile type one diabetes. The child requires a dozen monitorings of sugar multiple times a day and by night. She receives multiple injections of insulin and also wears an insulin pump and is being cared for by doctors at Yale-New Haven Hospital
Martinez has been under a deportation order since 2002, because she is here without legal permission. The order has been repeatedly stayed, but under a stricter policy initiated by the Trump administration, her most recent request for a stay was denied late Monday morning. Martinez lives in Stamford; the press conference was in New Haven because that’s where her new pro bono lawyer, Glenn Formica, has his office.
Martinez said she fears that if her child, who is a U.S. citizen, goes with her to Guatemala, the medical there there will be inadequate. “I’m scared for my daughter when her sugar is low. I want to stay with my family,” Martinez said at the press conference.
Her husband said he can’t care for Brianna alone: “Her condition requires her to be monitored on a daily basis. Miriam is the only person who managed to get Brianna healthy. Miriam is the backbone. We want to make sure she can wake up [every morning] and say, ‘I am ready for school.”
“Miriam’s voice is the face of our resistance to a policy that is inhumane and irrational,” said Sen. Blumenthal. “To rip apart a family with a kid who needs medical care! We will fight this. She has not had her full day in court. She has been productive in this country since she came her at age 27 to seek asylum.”
Blumenthal Monday with Martinez-Lemus and her husband.
As of late Monday afternoon ICE had not yet picked up Martinez to deport her. She does not plan to take sanctuary in a house of worship the way three other local immigrants have recently when facing deportation orders, Formica said. She has an ankle bracelet, so ICE can find her when it wants to.
“ICE should not do this to a mother,” Formica said.
Blumenthal said his office had not itself yet received a response to his letter of support in the case. He promised, if necessary, to go above ICE, to seek relief from ICE’s superiors in the Department of Homeland Security.
ICE Public Affairs Officer Shawn Neudauer provided this statement: “Miriam Martinez-Lemus is citizen of Guatemala. A federal immigration judge granted her voluntary departure in 2002, but she failed to leave the U.S. as instructed and that order automatically changed to a final order of removal.
“In a measure of discretion, ICE did not place her in custody, but entered her into an Alternatives to Detention program, and she has been checking in periodically at an ICE office. She was asked to provide proof she intends to leave the U.S., in compliance with the court’s order, which she has done. Should she fail to depart as instructed, she will be listed as an immigration fugitive and arrested when encountered, and then ICE will carry out her removal order. As an issue of operational security, ICE will not publicly discuss specific removal dates or times for any individual until after the removal has been completed.”
“The woman has known since 2002. She has placed her family in this condition. It’s not the government’s responsibility. She has been granted a lot of leeway since 2002. Now it’s the order. She can take her kid with her. Presumably they have doctors in Guatemala who know about diabetes,” ICE’s Neudauer added.
Yale Dr. Stuart Weinzimer underlines the seriousness of the condition.
Benavides said his wife came to this country in 1992, and they married in 2004. In 2012, she checked in with ICE, was given the ankle monitoring bracelet, and has had two stays approved. The denial of this third request for stay has precipitated the crisis, one complicated by Brianna’s fragile health situation.
“The woman has known since 2002. She has placed her family in this condition. It’s not the government’s responsiblity. She has been granted a lot of leeway since 2002. Now it’s the order. She can take her kid with her. Presumably they have doctors in Guatemala who know about diabetes,” ICE’s Neudauer added.