When Heury Gómez returned from a much-awaited birthday trip in August, he was prepared for the accountability of a lifetime: caring full-time for his disabled son.
A couple of months earlier than the trip, Gómez, a 43-year-old authorized resident of the US from the Dominican Republic, had been awarded full custody of 18-year-old Noah, who suffers from cerebral palsy and epilepsy. Noah is nonverbal, can’t stroll and requires steady care. Gómez took the 5-day journey to Mexico City as a short respite earlier than beginning intensive coaching to care for Noah at his house in New York City.
However, Gómez by no means began coaching. He was arrested by US Customs and Border Protection when he arrived at Newark Airport in New Jersey. He now faces removing proceedings stemming from two misdemeanor convictions from almost a decade in the past.
His case is one other instance of how the Department of Homeland Security has vastly expanded its targets for immigration enforcement below President Donald Trump’s second time period. The administration has each overseen sweeping raids targeting undocumented immigrants no matter their prison information and lower down on pathways to legal immigration, together with asylum. Green card holders like Gomez have been caught up in the deportation effort, too, together with Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was incarcerated by ICE for months.
The administration has stated they’re concentrating on “the worst of the worst” and specializing in violent criminals.
“President Trump and Secretary Noem are now enforcing this law as it was actually written to keep America safe,” the Department of Homeland Security instructed NCS in response to an inquiry about Gómez’s case.
Gómez’s household and legal professional say he’s not violent – and he’s grown and altered since his 2017 convictions for tried assault with intent to trigger bodily harm and tried petit larceny, each of which stem from the similar 2015 altercation with a former companion.
Instead, they describe him as a centered and loving father. He discovered to chop hair, so he’d have the ability to lower Noah’s hair, in keeping with his sister Aurelquis Gómez.
Gómez has now spent over thrice as a lot time in ICE detention as he served for his 2017 convictions. It’s been virtually three months since he noticed his son.
He’s “being torn away from his child over something that has been resolved, and he’s long outgrown,” stated Carolina Zapata, his cousin and roommate.
Gómez was 23 when he arrived in the US in 2005 and was granted lawful everlasting resident standing that yr. His son, a US citizen, was born simply two years later.
Noah was born with fluid in his mind, a situation referred to as hydrocephalus, which induced extreme medical problems and ongoing neurological issues. He breathes due to a tracheostomy – an operation that put in a gap in the entrance of his neck – and eats by means of a feeding tube.
Noah wants round-the-clock care. It’s a accountability Gómez fought for in a yearslong custody battle that resulted in March, when he was granted major custody. In the custody order reviewed by NCS, the courtroom famous Gomez had made his son’s care a precedence, working nights as a custodian at a Manhattan college to make it simpler to go to Noah throughout the day.
Gómez devoted himself to studying the intricacies of Noah’s medical wants, his cousin stated, together with methods to monitor the seizures he suffers and punctiliously suction mucus from his tracheostomy tube, so he breathes simply. He has a penchant for singing to Noah as he administers his medicines or bathes him – something to make him smile.
Noah “really loves his dad and smiles the most around him,” Aurelquis Gómez stated.
Before his detention, Gómez visited Noah typically at the New York City hospital the place he’s his son is at present receiving full-time care, his sister stated. He has been in residential care since 2018.
In the first week of August, Gomez went on trip to Mexico City earlier than he would have began getting ready to convey Noah house from the hospital.
But when he returned to Newark on August 5, Gómez was detained by CBP. He was described as “a criminal illegal alien, who was deemed inadmissible when he tried to enter the country,” in a press release despatched to NCS from the Department of Homeland Security. He was held at the airport for over 30 hours, in keeping with Zapata.
Gómez’s legal professional, Bryan Pu-Folkes, instructed NCS his shopper was categorised as an “arriving alien” and DHS initiated removing proceedings based mostly on the argument Gómez’s previous misdemeanors are categorised as acts of “moral turpitude,” a time period utilized in a 1952 regulation that encompasses crimes like fraud and harm to different individuals.
Gómez “came back into this country as a permanent resident, and he was treated like a stranger,” his legal professional stated.
After first being detained in New Jersey, Gómez was woke up in the night time and flown to an ICE facility in Michigan on August 19, his cousin stated. His sister instructed NCS it’s too costly for members of the family to fly to go to him, and difficult to make the 12-hour drive.
During his calls from ICE detention, he says he’s scared and struggling to be away from his son, Zapata stated.
The workplace of New York City Mayor Eric Adams instructed NCS it was “saddened” to listen to about Gomez’s detention. “Regardless of immigration status, everyone in New York City should be able to get an education, seek medical care, and practice their faith,” stated the workplace in a press release. “But unfortunately, incidents like these discourage immigrant communities from using city resources and living their lives.”
For Pu-Folkes, the removing proceedings are a disproportionate response to a decade-old episode in his shopper’s life. Gómez was sentenced to twenty days in jail and probation and required to take programs after his convictions. Aside from these misdemeanors, Gómez has “lived flawlessly in this country,” Pu-Folkes stated.
Pu-Folkes is now combating for the cancellation of removing for everlasting residents, a type of aid that requires them to show Gómez steady residence in the US and he deserves “this form of relief as a matter of fairness and compassion.”
“The heart of the case, I would say, is proving that his removal would cause extreme hardship to Noah, his US citizen son,” Pu-Folkes stated. “We’re not asking for leniency. We’re asking for some common sense.”
Under earlier administrations, Gómez’s detention would have been “extremely unusual,” in keeping with Pu-Folkes. Gómez had traveled internationally a number of occasions after his conviction with out problem.
“It’s not a new law that’s being applied today,” Pu-Folkes stated. “It’s just that the laws on the books are being applied far more aggressively today.”
Charles Kuck, an Atlanta-based immigration lawyer, instructed NCS increases to ICE’s budget imply the company “can enforce every law to the letter of the law, and they’re doing exactly that.”
At play in Gómez’s case is a decades-old immigration regulation that makes use of arcane vocabulary. Section 212 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 lists a sequence of teams of overseas nationals who’re inadmissible to the US, together with individuals with ailments who pose public well being considerations, drug traffickers, intercourse employees, and folks convicted of any “crime involving moral turpitude.”
The regulation itself doesn’t outline ethical turpitude, which Kuck characterised as an “intentionally nebulous” time period that normally describes crimes with intent. The Foreign Affairs Manual, a doc revealed by the State Department, teams quite a lot of crimes below the time period, together with fraud and crimes meant to hurt individuals.
Pu-Folkes stated the regulation “was really designed to keep people who were dangerous out of the country,” nonetheless, “the problem is when the law is used without any kind of fairness or proportion.”
Thousands of miles away from the ICE detention facility in Michigan, Aurelquis Gómez visits her nephew Noah typically. She reveals Noah his father over video calls. His discharge has been delayed because of his father’s detention.
In the Hell’s Kitchen house Gómez shares with his cousin, the indicators of Noah’s disrupted arrival are in all places. There’s new flooring put in to make it simpler to maneuver his wheelchair, and blinds to maintain him from getting an excessive amount of solar. The cousins had began emptying out Gómez’s bed room so Noah might keep there as a substitute, with sufficient area to accommodate his ventilator, wheelchair, and different medical gear.
The detention has been pricey – in additional methods than one. The household has already paid 1000’s of {dollars} in authorized charges, and so they’ve began a GoFundMe to assist alleviate the burden.
“There are days we cry and don’t eat,” Aurelquis Gómez stated. “There are days full of anguish.”
The one that will undergo the most if Gómez is deported is his son, Zapata stated, who “depends on the consistency and bond he has with his father.”
Gómez “spent years of his life doing the right thing,” she stated. “I think it’s an example of what happens when a system stops recognizing redemption.”
Gómez’s removing listening to is predicted to start November 12.