Lawyer: DHS assured no deportation for Macaraeg

The Department of Homeland Security has assured that Elpidio A. Macaraeg, a Filipino maintenance worker who has been on Saipan for 26 years and has been in detention for a month now, will not be deported until his motion to reopen proceedings is heard by the Immigration Court, according to immigration lawyer Mun Su Park.

“It’s a very important issue—due process,” Park told Saipan Tribune.

Park disclosed that a DHS investigator informed him yesterday morning that the removal proceeding has been opened and that a $5,000 bond is set for Macaraeg’s temporary release.

The lawyer said he will see Macaraeg at the Department of Corrections today, Wednesday, to discuss the bail and see if they can ask the Immigration Court to reduce the amount.

Park said they were able to stop Macaraeg’s deportation after they filed the emergency motion to reopen proceedings and rescind the in absentia order of removal entered on Oct. 4, 2011.

Park also filed a motion for automatic stay of removal/deportation.

Records indicate that Park’s law office filed the motions on Oct. 31, 2011.

Rene Reyes, founding president of the Marianas Advocates for Humanitarian Affairs Ltd. or MAHAL, told Saipan Tribune on Friday that Immigration and Customs agents had informed Macaraeg that he would be deported on Monday, Nov. 7.

Reyes said he went to the Department of Corrections Monday night and saw that Macaraeg had not been deported.

ICE agents arrested Macaraeg last month when he did not appear at his immigration hearing due to confusion about his hearing date.

In an earlier visit to the facility, Reyes found Macaraeg in a wheelchair as his legs were swelling due to arthritis.

In the motions, Park said that, on Aug. 16, 2011, Macaraeg was served with a written notice of a hearing that clearly set it for Oct. 9, 2011, at 10am.

Oct. 9 falls on a Sunday and the following day, Oct. 10, is also a non-working federal holiday.

Nonetheless, Park said, Macaraeg, accompanied by a friend (Reyes) went back the next day, Oct. 11, to the court for the same purpose of verifying his hearing date.

“It was then that they found out from an immigration court employee that the court conducted the hearing on the respondent’s case on Oct. 4, 2011, and not Oct. 9, 2011, as shown in the hearing notice dated Aug. 16, 2011,” Park said.

Park said the court employee insisted that Macaraeg’s hearing date was Oct. 4, 2011.

Saipan Tribune inspected the hearing notice yesterday and saw that the number looks like a 4 or a 9 as it was handwritten.

“The court’s written notice sets out a wrong date to the detriment of respondent, whose only fault is to rely and believe that that the court’s written notice is correct,” Park said.

Among the grounds cited for removal was that Macaraeg is jobless and has no umbrella permit.

Reyes said that Macaraeg was among the 628 aliens who were granted conditional umbrella permits.