Paulo Cesar Gamez Lira and his wife Alejandra hold their newborn child in an undated photo. Thanks to a federal judge’s order, the 27-year-old DACA recipient was released Wednesday from the Otero County Processing Center in New Mexico. (Courtesy ACLU-NM)
A federal judge in New Mexico this week ordered the release of a 27-year-old man held in federal immigration detention in Chaparral for 42 days, a detention that occurred even though he had previously received a federal promise of deferred deportation.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Paulo Cesar Gamez Lira at his home in Horizon City, Texas on Aug. 13, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico. Agents then took Gamez Lira to the Otero County Processing Center in Southern New Mexico, where he was held until Wednesday.
Gamez Lira has lived in the United States since infancy, according to the ACLU, and he successfully secured Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival status after President Barack Obama signed an executive order granting deportation protections in 2012. Gamez Lira, a father of four who works as a forklift driver, had valid DACA status when ICE agents detained him, according to the ACLU.
The civil rights group and private law-firm Singleton Schreiber, a private national firm with a New Mexico presence, sued Sept. 3 in federal court, alleging Gamez Lira’s constitutional rights were being violated.
In response, acting United States Attorney for New Mexico Ryan Ellison said the government did not oppose Gamez Lira’s release, according to a Wednesday court filing, though he wrote that the government’s lack of opposition to his release does mean it accepts factual or legal allegations his lawyers made in the lawsuit.
Shortly after Ellison’s filing, federal judge William P. Johnson ordered Gamez Lira’s immediate release Wednesday.
“This has been the most difficult time of our lives, but we never lost hope that justice would prevail,” said Alejandra Gamez Lira, the detainee’s wife, in a statement provided by the ACLU.
ICE previously declined to comment about the lawsuit in a statement to Source New Mexico, citing the federal litigation.
Gamez Lira’s lawyers celebrated his release and criticized ICE for arresting a DACA recipient.
“This case shows that the government absolutely should refrain from detaining DACA recipients, and we are grateful that swift legal action here has resulted in Paulo being reunited with his loved ones,” said Becca Sheff, a lawyer with the ACLU-NM, in a statement.