Texas Mother Of Three Faces Deportation

HOUSTON, TX — A routine traffic stop in Deer Park, a city in Harris County near Houston, has led to a woman's detention in an ICE facility, and her family now fears that the mother of three will be deported to Guatemala.

On Monday, Lucia Montes-Rodas was driving with her daughter when the pair's Jeep was stopped by an officer with the Deer Park Police Department. The officer pulled Montes-Rodas over because her Jeep was lacking a front license plate.

"I though the worst thing that could happen is she would get a ticket," Alejandra Garcia, Montes-Rodas' daughter, told KHOU. "I didn't think they were going to take her."

In addition to the front license plate issue, the 41-year-old Montes-Rodas could not present a driver's license, because she did not have one. She was taken into custody at a Deer Park jail, and two days later, on Wednesday, Montes-Rodas was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and remains in custody at an ICE facility in Texas.

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It turns out that Montes-Rodas had entered the U.S. illegally in July 2003 and had been arrested then by U.S. Border Patrol officers near Eagle Pass, Texas. She was ordered to appear before an immigration judge in November of that year, but, according to law enforcement officials, she failed to appear, resulting in the issuance of a final order of removal warrant.

"We don't want to assume that police are already enforcing the SB4 law since it has not come into effect," Cesar Espinosa, an immigrant activist with FIEL Houston, an organization that lobbies for immigrant rights, told KHOU. "But it's important to know these are the types of chilling effects that SB4 is going to have in our community."

Montes-Rodas's family and concerned activists have filed a complaint with the Deer Park Police Department about the arrest and are consulting with immigration attorneys, hoping to prevent her deportation.

"It was an act of racism," Alejandro Garcia, Montes-Rodas's husband, told KHOU, speaking Spanish. "As a community, we should get together and stop this."

Calls to the Deer Park Police Department and FIEL were not immediately returned.

» See the story on KHOU

Image: Wikimedia Commons/Social Justice - Bruce Emmerling