Thanks to the efforts from elected officials and advocates like you, an undocumented immigrant and 9/11 recovery worker who was facing imminent deportation has been freed from ICE detention. Despite the fact that Carlos Cardona has been here for three decades and suffers from ongoing health issues due to his recovery work in the Twin Tower wreckage, ICE wanted to deport him for a nonviolent conviction from 25 years ago.
But following public outcry, Cardona went home to his family this week:
Cardona said he could hardly believe his ears when officials told him he was getting out.
“I couldn't believe it when they came this morning,” he said. “I wasn't sure if they were letting me go or if they were going to deport me. They took me to their offices on Varick St., and I signed some (documents). They told me I could go. I couldn't believe it.”
Cardona called his wife Liliana, who had faithfully visited every week since the undocumented immigrant from Colombia was taken into custody.
“My family arrived in a car to get me. It was such a happy moment,” Cardona said. “I was overjoyed. I had been waiting for this moment for a while, months already. I'm very lucky, one of the lucky ones. I feel very privileged to be able to come back home to my family.”
Cardona’s experience is proof positive that the anti-immigrant crackdown under Donald Trump isn’t just senseless, it’s also vicious. After his 1990 conviction, Cardona followed the rules by checking in regularly with ICE and staying out of trouble. When the Twin Towers came down, Cardona didn’t care that deportation still loomed over him. He did what he felt was right and helped. And yet, following his ICE check-in the month after Trump’s inauguration, Cardona was taken into custody and became yet another victim of a “silent raid.”
Outraged community members and elected officials came to Cardona’s defense, with Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) sending a letter to DHS, ICE, and USCIS calling on them to stop Cardona’s deportation, and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issuing the undocumented father a pardon for his drug conviction, an important step advocates hoped would help his case.
There’s no doubt a combination of everything helped Cardona’s case, despite ICE’s insistence otherwise. And, it shows that it takes a village—all of us—to help save an immigrant these days.
“This is a positive step forward in Mr. Cardona’s case,” said Rep. Crowley in a statement. “Deporting him would have sent the wrong message, not just to the immigrants who call our country home, but to all who would help when their country calls on them.”
But while Cardona is finally home where he belongs, the fight isn’t over just yet, because he must still check in with ICE periodically as his immigration case is pending. We’ll keep updating his story here. But in the meantime, he and his family are overjoyed to be together again:
“I couldn't believe it when he called me this morning,” said Liliana, who prepared Cardona a plate of chicken and salad when he got home.
“I thought he was calling from jail. Then he told me to come pick him up. I was so happy. It was incredible. It was the best surprise."
"While Mr. Cardona is no longer in custody,” said Gov. Cuomo in a statement, “the federal government should complete its review of his case without delay and let Mr. Cardona move on with his life."