wfn.org | Churchman Wins Reversal of Deportation Order

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

21-April-1999 
99159 
    Churchman Wins Reversal of Deportation Order 
 
    by John Filiatreau 
 
    DENTON, Texas - Thanks largely to fellow members of his Presbyterian 
congregation, Ed Portillo got his day in court on April 16 - and won a 
reversal of a U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) order that 
he be deported to his native Mexico. 
 
    About 50 members of Trinity Presbyterian Church of Denton, who had 
gathered outside a small courtroom in support of Portillo, cheered when 
they got news of his victory. 
 
    Portillo, a Presbyterian Sunday School teacher, was released from the 
county jail Friday. He had been locked up since March 17, when INS 
officials arrested him under a 1996 law that provides for the immediate 
deportation of criminal aliens. 
 
    In 1983, Portillo, then 19 years old, pleaded guilty to robbery and was 
sentenced to 10 years' probation. He says he had given a gun belonging to 
his father to some friends and waited in a car while they robbed someone. 
He made restitution and stayed out of trouble, and was released from 
probation after only five years. He thought - erroneously - that his record 
had been cleared. 
 
    Portillo came to the attention of the INS when he applied for 
citizenship two years ago. 
 
    During Friday's hearing, he asked the judge to prevent his deportation 
on the basis of his unblemished record for the past 16 years, his length of 
time in the country (26 years), and the fact this his wife and daughter are 
U.S. citizens. 
 
    Of the five witnesses who appeared for Portillo during the hearing, 
four, including his wife, Karen, are members of Trinity Presbyterian. 
 
    Ron Farnsworth, a friend, said the judge "admonished Ed for the past 
crime, and said he didn't believe the crime would have happened without his 
involvement - but he also said he didn't believe Ed would ever be back in 
court (as a defendant) again." 

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