Guatemalan teen in Ohio seeks to avoid deportation

Associated Press

CINCINNATI

A Guatemalan teen in Ohio who gained national attention amid federal efforts to deport him is near the end of a one-year reprieve and needs an extension to remain in the country.

An attorney for Bernard Pastor, of the Cincinnati area, says the 19-year-old college student plans to request a two-year extension by Dec. 17 and is hoping recent directives by the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement will help his case, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

Pastor’s attorney, David Leopold, will file the request for an extension with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Detroit. ICE confirmed the December deadline, but spokesman Khaalid Walls told The Associated Press on Friday that he could not comment on specifics of an individual’s immigration status.

Pastor’s parents brought him to this country when he was a child. He was 18 and an honors graduate from a Cincinnati high school when authorities discovered through a minor traffic accident that he had no legal documents of residency or citizenship, and he was placed in federal custody.

Students, church members and immigration advocates had rallied on his behalf, saying deportation would serve no useful purpose. He was released from a federal holding facility last Dec. 17 with deportation delayed for a year.

Pastor became a national figure in the debate over Dream Act legislation and was at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 18, a day after his release, as senators voted against the proposed law. The proposal reintroduced this year in the Senate would provide a pathway to legal residency for some young people brought to this country illegally by their parents when they were children.