AUGUST 17, 2009, DETROIT - More than 100 people rallied Monday night at Hope Community Church in Detroit in an effort to prevent a University of Detroit Mercy student from being deported to Albania.
Herta Llusho, 19, of Grosse Pointe Park, said she came to the United States in 2001 from Albania, along with her family, on a tourist visa. They were denied political asylum and, now, Llusho and her mother must leave on Wednesday.
Advocates say that college students like Llusho should be allowed to stay in the United States because of their potential. They’re asking the Department of Homeland Security to grant her a deferment.
U.S. Sen. Carl Levin wrote a letter Friday to the department, asking that Llusho’s deportation be deferred.
A spokesman for the Detroit office of the Department of Homeland Security did not comment Monday.
Detroit Free Press
2 comments:
JUST GO BACK HOME, YOU ARE BETTER OFF OVER THERE!
Feds defend deportation of Grosse Pointe teen to Albania
Officials with the Department of Homeland Security are defending the deportation of a teenager to Albania, saying in a statement that the teenager “has fully exercised her right to due process.”
Herta Llusho, 19, an engineering student who lives in Grosse Pointe Park, came to the U.S. in 2001 from Albania along with her family on a tourist visa. They applied for political asylum, but were denied in the courts. Llusho and her mother were scheduled to be deported today.
Some immigrant advocates say that college students like Llusho should be allowed to stay in the U.S. because of their potential. They asked the Department of Homeland Security to grant her a deferment that would allow her to stay.
But Khaalid Walls, a spokesman for the Detroit office of Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement that the student “is currently under a final deportation order from a federal immigration judge. She has fully exercised her right to due process, and has challenged her removal before the courts.”
U.S. Sen. Carl Levin wrote a letter to the department on Friday asking them to grant her a deferral. A group based in Ann Arbor, Dream Activist, is pushing for Llusho to stay in the U.S.
But Walls said in the statement that "ICE is charged with enforcing immigration and customs laws, including enforcing court-ordered deportation orders.”
Contact Niraj Warikoo at nwarikoo@freepress.com
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