Mothers with no criminal pasts await deportation in jail: 'Fight for us, please'

The pay phone at the Calhoun County jail has turned into a lifeline for a novel group of inmates that has shown up this year: mothers facing deportation who desperately want to talk to their children.

Most have no criminal convictions, attorneys say. All have American-born children.

But they've lost their right to live in the U.S. under tough new immigration policies that lump all of those who are here illegally into the same category — criminal background or not — landing at least 30 women, half of them mothers, in the Battle Creek jail in recent months.

Among them is Cile Precetaj of Albania, 46, a mother of three who is sharing a cell room with six female immigrants and wants the world to know their plight. There is fear and panic in the jailhouse, she said.

One night, the Albanian woman said, a Chinese mother of three facing deportation kept banging her head against the wall.

Another day, a Mexican woman sobbed uncontrollably, so Precetaj said she kneeled with her and prayed the rosary.

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There are also fears about the husbands getting deported, too, leaving the kids with no one.

“I want people to pray for us,” Precetaj said in a phone interview from jail this week. “We never did any crime. We just came here to this country to have better life and better education for our kids. That’s the only reason we came here and I pray to God it’s going to work out.”

Precetaj, who has been seeking asylum in the U.S. since 2000 and has no criminal record, said that many of the women in jail are afraid to speak out, fearing ICE could also go after their husbands or other family members.

“They are all afraid to talk,” Precetaj said. “Somebody has to stand up for these mothers. If someone doesn’t stand up, there’s never going to be any change in this country for all these poor mothers.”

Precetaj, who was spared deportation in 2014 by an executive order, could be deported as early as Wednesday. She was arrested on April 26 during a routine monthly visit to the ICE office in Detroit and passed out from an anxiety attack after officials ordered her to remove her wedding ring, earrings and necklace of the Virgin Mary. She was hospitalized briefly, then taken to jail.

Her three children, ages 8, 10, and 16, live with their father, Pete, a Yugoslavian immigrant who has lived in the U.S. for 30 years and owns a restaurant. Her case is currently on appeal in the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. In her application for asylum, she claimed that she feared for her life in Albania and that her family was constantly threatened by criminal groups that sought to kidnap her and make her a prostitute. She also has expressed fears about an abusive fiancé she left in Albania. The courts have repeatedly denied her application for asylum and have found her not credible.

But Precetaj 's attorney is not giving up.

"We're optimistic that the 6th Circuit will recognize the fact that she has no criminal record whatsoever and she has three U.S. citizen children," said Mt. Clemens immigration attorney Michael Lacey, who is handling Precetaj's appeal. "In the past, before the 2016 election, she would never have been taken into custody like this. At that time, only dangerous criminals were being removed.”

But times have changed — a fact that the U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement concedes to, noting "ICE no longer exempts classes or categories of removable (immigrants) from potential enforcement."

In a statement to the Free Press, ICE said that Precetaj will remain in ICE custody pending the outcome of her immigration case. It also noted that in 2005, Precetaj was ordered removed from the country by a federal immigration judge, and that for more than a decade, ICE has allowed her to remain free from custody while exhausting all of her legal options.

ICE did not comment on why mothers with no criminal records are now being arrested and processed for deportation, stating only:

"ICE is focused on removing public safety threats, such as convicted criminal aliens and gang members, as well as individuals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws, including those who illegally re-entered the country after being removed and immigration fugitives ordered removed by federal immigration judges."

It adds: "However, ICE no longer exempts classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement. All of those in violation of the immigration laws may be subject to immigration arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States."

According to ICE, 92% of all immigrants arrested by ICE last year had criminal convictions, pending criminal charges, were an immigration fugitive, or were an illegal re-entrant.

Precetaj is none of those. And she contends, neither are most of the women she's in jail with.

Historically, undocumented mothers with clean records were not immune from deportation, according to immigration law attorneys. However, immigration authorities used discretion in the past and took factors like family relationships and lack of a criminal record into account in deciding whether someone can stay or not.

“The Trump administration made it very clear in January 2017 that they were undoing the priority system that created a secondary process for looking at things like family relationships and lack of criminal record in pursuing deportation orders,” said Susan Reed, managing attorney for the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center. “Whether or not you have a criminal record or whether or not you’re someone’s mother doesn’t matter to the government anymore.”

According to Reed, people who are here illegally and ordered deported can still apply for what’s known as a “Cancellation of Removal” order, but they must have good moral character and show “extreme hardship.”

“Just having a child is not enough. A child missing a parent isn’t enough. That’s not unusual hardship,” Reed explained, noting the days of discretion are over. “Lots of people were spared deportation and public pressure mattered. None of it matters anymore. The immigration law is set up to be very harsh with discretion. There’s no mercy left.”

Catherine Villanueva, a staff attorney at MIRC who represented a mother who was deported three weeks ago after being “brutally raped” by an undocumented immigrant, echoed those sentiments. She said that her client qualified for a special visa provided to immigrants who help the government prosecute criminals. But she was still deported because of a misdemeanor on her record.

“She has multiple American-born children, one with serious asthma. … She was in jail for 10 months while her rapist got a couple of months and then he was deported,” Villanueva said. “Her children really need her.”

But until and unless the woman gets the special visa, she will remain apart from her children.

“Where ICE prioritized people with criminal records, now just being in the country illegally is enough,” Villanueva said, noting prosecutorial discretion could still happen “but we’re just not seeing that.”

Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com. Follow her at Twitter @Tbaldas