NEWARK, N.J. – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez issued the following statement after the decision today by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Field Office in Newark not to detain Union City, N.J. grandfather Catalino Guerrero and accept his application for a stay of removal. The senator, Newark Archbishop Joseph Cardinal Tobin, local clergy, advocates, friends and family held a vigil and rally outside while Mr. Guerrero was meeting with ICE.

“I was pleased to receive the news that ICE decided not to detain Mr. Catalino Guerrero and accept his application for a stay a removal. After weeks of listening to heart wrenching reports of ICE raids and detentions of mothers, victims of domestic violence and DACA recipients, I am glad Catalino can go home and be with his family today.”

“But Mr. Guerrero’s case is not over and this peace of mind is only temporary until his next ICE appointment in May. I urge ICE to give full consideration to his request for a stay of removal, so this New Jersey family can live in peace. ICE should focus its resources on detaining and deporting hardened criminals not loving grandpas. I will continue to monitor Mr. Guerrero’s case and continue the fight to fix our broken immigration system, so that people like Mr. Guerrero can find a pathway to citizenship and ICE can focus on the real “bad hombres.”

Mr. Guerrero, who’s an undocumented immigrant, has lived peacefully in the U.S., paying taxes and without a criminal record for 25 years, but faces deportation under President Trump’s executive order.

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