Pizza Delivery Man Detained by ICE Is Freed by Judge

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/24/nyregion/pizza-deliveryman-deportation-judge-questions.html

Pizza Delivery Man Detained by ICE Is Freed by Judge
By Liz Robbins
July 24, 2018

A federal district court judge on Tuesday ordered the immediate release of Pablo Villavicencio Calderon, an undocumented pizza delivery man, from immigration detention in New Jersey, where he had been locked up since June 1.

The order came after a morning hearing in which Judge Paul A. Crotty, an appointee of President George W. Bush and the former corporation counsel for Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, pointedly questioned the government about why it had detained Mr. Villavicencio and planned to deport him. “Is there any concept of justice here?” Judge Crotty asked the government’s lawyer.

Later in the day, the judge said that Mr. Villavicencio, 35, who is married to a United States citizen and in February began a petition for a green card, should be released. The judge granted a stay of deportation while Mr. Villavicencio pursues permanent residency.

Judge Crotty set the tone for his decision during the hearing in Manhattan when he questioned why Mr. Villavicencio had been held for 53 days by the immigration agency since his arrest while dropping off food at a Brooklyn army base. “Is he a threat to the country? A flight risk? Don’t they have to justify it?” he asked the government lawyer.

The lawyer, Joseph Cordaro, stammered, but said that the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, had made the decision.

Mr. Villavicencio was arrested when delivering food from a Queens brick-oven pizzeria to a Fort Hamilton Army base. He presented a municipal identification card from the city, known as IDNYC, which Mr. Villavicencio has said he used previously at the base. This time it was not accepted.

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[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[onecaliberal]

2. Ridiculously inhumane. Not a tiny spec of morals.

[Corvo Bianco]

3. I remember when this happened

Colbert made some joke about it, I completely forgot. Meanwhile this man has been behind bars since that day he did his job. I'm glad this one got out.

[elleng]

4. "Is there any concept of justice here?"

[2naSalit]

5. Apparently not needed anymore...nt

[iluvtennis]

6. What the Trump admin is doing is disgusting. So glad the judge had the decency and morality to

see what ICE/trump admin did to this man was unlawful and inhumane.