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In 2002, Cesar Alexander Restrepo found his way to a small town in New Hampshire to get his family away from the danger that had plagued them where they lived near Medellín, Colombia. Unfortunately, one night a loud family argument put their safety in jeopardy.
The local police were called to his house to investigate a disturbance. The police did not speak Spanish and Cesar Alexander’s family did not speak English, but that did not stop him from being arrested for presumed Domestic Violence. The criminal case against him was eventually dismissed, but the charges allowed the immigration authorities to find him and because he did not have permission to be in the U.S. he was placed into removal / deportation proceedings.
With assistance from attorney Desmond FitzGerald, Cesar Alexander filed a claim for asylum. They gathered large amounts of evidence and prepared his testimony. An asylum petition is generally difficult to prove in an Immigration Court proceeding, but this case was strong. Cesar Alexander operated a large farm in Antioquia, Colombia and one day he received a call that one f the farm’s vehicles had been seized and several of his worker’s were being held by the FARC (Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia), a Colombian leftist group of terrorist and narco-traffickers that controlled that area at the time.
Cesar was instructed by the FARC where he had to go to retrieve his workers. They told him that he had to go to the mayor of his city and convince him to stop the military from patrolling that area, and if he did not, they would kill him and his workers. While the FARC released his people, they kept his vehicle and Cesar was simply powerless to prevent it.
Cesar Alexander immediately met with the mayor with whom he was closely associated and who he had supported in his election, only his meeting was to report the incident to the authorities and implore them for help.
The Mayor’s office thanked Cesar for the information, and while they certainly would not stop patrolling all the territories, they also could not guarantee his safety. It was at that moment; Cesar made the very difficult decision to relocate to the U.S.
When the judge at the Immigration Court heard the testimony and reviewed the documentation, it was easy for him to issue an order granting asylum status, or so it appeared. Just before the judge declared the Court’s decision the government lawyer filed a petition to prevent the grant of asylum under the Persecution Bar, a law that bars or prevents terrorists who persecute people in their countries, from receiving lawful status in the U.S.
Attorney FitzGerald objected because this petition was filed late, and the judge initially had agreed and granted Cesar asylum status, but the government filed a Notice of Appeal preventing the Judge’s order from taking effect. It felt like justice had ben lost. It was unbelievable that a person whose vehicle was seized forcibly by a terrorist group, who only acted to save the lives of innocent employees, could be classified as a supporter of a group who had forced him to flee his own country. Unfortunately, that has been the law. Specifically, if a person provides funds, materials, or services to a group that persecutes others, even if they are forced to do so under duress, by force or the threat of death, they will not be eligible for asylum. Moreover, in 2020, Attorney General Barr, issued a ruling to state there was no “duress” exception to the persecutor bar.
Despite, the overwhelming disappointment Cesar Alexander agreed to have attorney FitzGerald file a petition for review with USCIS who has the authority to grant asylum in cases in which the court is not permitted to do so because of the “persecution bar.”
The team at FitzGerald Law Company assisted Cesar in obtaining evidence about his activities in Colombia and in the U.S. as well as information about his family, his business and even records related to how he paid his taxes in the U.S. The petition was filed and, on several occasions, it was supplemented. The process took years to be completed, requiring additional appearances before the Judge, filings with the Board of Immigration Appeals as well as USCIS, but finally when everything was carefully reviewed and analyzed, a proper and just decision was returned. Cesar Alexander would be granted status in the U.S. and the safety and security he desired for so long.
