After a high-profile arrest during a Southern California enforcement operation, a judge ruled the longtime resident may now pursue legal permanent status.
An immigration judge has terminated the deportation case against an undocumented father of three U.S. Marines who were detained by federal agents last year while landscaping in Southern California, paving the way for him to seek legal permanent residency in the United States.
Last June, Narciso Barranco was clearing weeds outside an IHOP restaurant in Santa Ana, Calif., when immigration agents approached him from behind, pinned him to the ground and handcuffed him. Mr. Barranco, a 49-year-old Mexican national who has lived in the United States for three decades, was then transferred to a detention center and placed in deportation proceedings. He was released on a $3,000 bond in mid-July and fitted with an ankle monitor.
At the time, the Department of Homeland Security defended the agents’ aggressive arrest, saying the agents had felt threatened by Mr. Barranco and accusing him of having raised his weed trimmer at them. The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the immigration judge’s ruling
The episode garnered national attention last year, and Mr. Barranco became a symbol of President Trump’s immigration crackdown. The Trump administration had launched a large immigration enforcement operation in the Los Angeles area in June, touching off a wave of intense protests and clashes between residents and federal law enforcement officers. In her order terminating the deportation case, signed on Jan. 28, Judge Kristin S. Piepmeier said that Mr. Barranco had provided evidence that he was the father of three American sons in the military, rendering him eligible to obtain legal status. Immigration officers have since removed Mr. Barranco’s ankle monitor, and his check-ins have been discontinued, Mr. Barranco told The New York Times.
“I think the American people would agree that no one like Narciso Barranco, who raised three U.S. citizen Marines and has no criminal record, deserved the treatment he received,” Lisa Ramirez, Mr. Barranco’s lawyer, said shortly after the ruling.
