NEW YORK: A New York judge who ordered an Ecuadorean immigrant who delivered pizza to an Army installation freed from an immigration detention camp said Wednesday that the government was applying its “zero tolerance” policy toward illegal entry in a “thoughtless and cruel” manner.
US District Judge Paul Crotty explained in a written opinion why he ordered Pablo Villavicencio freed last week from a detention center in New Jersey.
He also nullified a “supervised release” order Villavicencio was told to sign before he was freed that set special conditions he must follow.
In the opinion, Crotty took a swipe at the government’s decision to separate some children from their parents at the Mexican border and then transport the children to New York, saying he did not believe “this is accidental or random.”
Instead, he wrote, the government may be trying to break detainees’ connections to their support system of families and friends and frustrate their ability to retain competent legal representation and effectively participate in legal proceedings. In Villavicencio’s case, the government tried to move the case to a New Jersey court.
In a footnote, Crotty said the behavior reminded him that Thomas Jefferson cited in the Declaration of Independence how colonists were tried in “remote locations” to obstruct the laws for naturalization of foreigners.
“Immigration was even then a critical issue,” Crotty said.
Villavicencio, 35, who is married to a US citizen with two young girls who also are citizens, is trying to establish legal residency. He was arrested and detained June 1 after delivering pizza to the Army garrison in Fort Hamilton.
When he arrived at the installation, guards requested identification, and he produced a city identification card. A background check showed he had been ordered to leave the US in 2010 but stayed. He unlawfully entered the country in 2008.
Crotty ordered him freed a week ago and said he would explain his reasoning later.
Crotty wrote that there was no justification for Villavicencio’s detention and said the man had earned a right to apply to stay in the country legally under a special program set up for individuals in his situation.
“It should not be difficult to discern that families should be kept together rather than be separated by the thoughtless and cruel application of a so called ‘zero tolerance’ policy,” Crotty wrote. “This is especially so where the organization seeking removal has also provided a pathway for a person in petitioner’s position to regularize his immigration status with minimal disruption to his family life.”
He added that Villavicencio “deserves it due to his hard work, his dedication to the family, and his clean criminal record.”
The judge called Villavicencio’s arrest a “mercurial exercise of executive power.”
He said the government had given Villavicencio no explanation or justification to deny him a chance to apply through a program it had established.
“It is not unlike giving a person a job, and then taking away the tools necessary to perform the job. It is simply not right,” Crotty said.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered the “zero tolerance” policy in April.
Through a spokesman, government lawyers declined comment Wednesday.
US judge calls ‘zero tolerance’ immigration policy ‘cruel’
US judge calls ‘zero tolerance’ immigration policy ‘cruel’
- Pablo Villavicencio was detained June 1 after delivering pizza to a Brooklyn Army installation
Ukraine, US, Europe still seeking common ground in peace talks, French official says
- French presidency official: “The European perspective of Ukraine is clear and it’s a realistic perspective”
PARIS: Ukraine, the United States and European powers are still working to find a joint position that would outline the contours of a peace deal, including security guarantees for Kyiv, that could be taken to Russia, a French presidency official said on Friday.
“Our goal is to have a common foundation that is solid for negotiation. This common ground must unite Ukrainians, Americans and Europeans,” the official told reporters in a briefing.
“It should allow us, together, to make a negotiating offer, a solid, lasting peace offer that respects international law and Ukraine’s sovereign interests, an offer that American negotiators are willing to bring to the Russians.”
The official said there was no joint document yet, but all sides would carry on negotiations in the coming days through various calls and meetings. He did not say whether Washington had set a deadline.
Kyiv is under pressure from the White House to secure a quick peace but is pushing back on a US-backed plan proposed last month that many see as favorable to Moscow.
Britain, France and Germany, along with other European partners and Ukraine, have been working frantically in the last few weeks to refine the original US proposals that envisaged Kyiv giving up swathes of its territory to Moscow, abandoning its ambition to join NATO and accepting limits on the size of its armed forces.
The French official said the talks aimed at narrowing differences with the United States and centered on territory and potential security guarantees for Ukraine once there is a peace accord.
Those discussions include the possibility of a NATO Article-5 type clause involving Washington that would seek to reassure Kyiv in case it was once again attacked by Russia, the official said.
The Europeans have also faced pressure in recent weeks with some American proposals touching on elements that concern NATO and the European Union, including suggestions on fast-tracking Ukraine’s accession to the bloc.
“The European perspective of Ukraine is clear and it’s a realistic perspective,” the official said. “That is what we are committed to and it is up to the Europeans and the Ukrainians to agree on how to proceed.”
