SEATTLE (AP) - The Latest on the case of a detained Seattle area man who was brought to the U.S. illegally as a child but protected from deportation by former President Barack Obama’s administration. (all times local):
2:45 p.m.
Federal authorities are reiterating that a 23-year-old Mexican man who was arrested at his father’s house in the Seattle area faces the possibility of deportation despite his participation in a program to protect those who arrived in the U.S. illegally.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Wednesday afternoon that Daniel Ramirez Medina is a gang member and has been transferred to a detention Center in Tacoma to “await the outcome of removal proceedings.”
His lawyers have denied he is a gang member.
The statement said that participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program can have their status revoked if they’re found to pose a threat to national security or public safety.
Of the more than 750,000 people who have been granted deferred action status since 2012, about 1,500 have had it revoked because of criminal convictions or gang affiliations.
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1:30 p.m.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee says he has serious concerns about the detention of a Seattle-area man who was brought to the U.S. from Mexico illegally as a child but was protected from deportation under a policy enacted by President Barack Obama.
The Democrat Inslee says his office has been trying to get information about the case from federal officials.
He said that President Donald Trump has not announced any changes to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program that benefited Daniel Ramirez Medina.
Inslee says it would be “unconscionable for this Administration to renege on the trust and commitment our country has made to the hundreds of thousands of children and young adults who call America home.”
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10:30 a.m.
Immigrant rights activists are demanding the federal government immediately release a Seattle-area man who was brought to the U.S. from Mexico illegally as a child but was protected from deportation under a policy by President Barack Obama.
Daniel Ramirez Medina, 23, was arrested Friday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who went to arrest his father.
Federal authorities say Medina told agents he was a gang member and was taken into custody because he was a “risk to public safety.”
But Greisa Martinez, advocacy director for United We Dream immigrant support group, told reporters Wednesday that was “a lie.”
She says Medina had no criminal record and spent thousands of dollars to maintain his status in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
She asked Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to “release Daniel right now.”
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12:01 a.m.
A Seattle-area man who was brought to the U.S. illegally as a child but was protected from deportation under a policy by President Barack Obama is suing the federal government over his arrest and detention last week.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 23-year-old Daniel Ramirez Medina on Friday at his father’s home. Agents were there to arrest his father and took Ramirez into custody even though he has a work permit under Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, court documents said.
ICE spokeswoman Rose Richeson said in a statement that Ramirez told agents he was a gang member and based on those statements and being a “risk to public safety,” he was taken into custody.
Mark Rosenbaum, one of Ramirez’s lawyers, responded that Ramirez “unequivocally denies being in a gang” and that the statement from Richeson is inaccurate.
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