Undocumented Mexican Man Deported After Ex-Girlfriend Allegedly Reports Him to ICE
An attorney for an undocumented Mexican man living in the United States claims her client was deported after the man’s ex-girlfriend reported him to immigration officials as part of a longstanding pattern of stalking and harassing behavior following their breakup.
Thirty-seven-year old Serafin Alegria-Zamora was sent back to his native Mexico from Sedgwick County, KS, on Friday. Speaking with the Kansas City Star on Sunday, his lawyer Rekha Sharma-Crawford claimed it was the “final act of terror” committed by Alegria-Zamora’s (unnamed) ex-girlfriend, who had allegedly sought to punish him for dating and having a child with another woman.
According to the Star, Alegria-Zamora’s wife and five-month-old child remain in the U.S. following his deportation. Since his pre-deportation arrest occurred before his daughter was born, the two have never met.
In a legal complaint obtained by the Star, Sharma-Crawford claimed that her client and his new girlfriend had been sent threatening photographs, images of dead children, and in one instance, a child’s doll covered in red paint with a note reading “back off bitch, Serafin is mine.”
Alegria-Zamora was arrested by federal officials on April 11, 2017, and had been “charged with one count of unlawfully re-entering the United States after being deported, two counts of misusing a Social Security number and one count of aggravated identity theft,” according to the Department of Justice. Sharma-Crawford claimed it is the sole item in his criminal record.
However, due to the alleged stalking, Alegria-Zamora had applied for what’s commonly known as a “U Visa,” which allows undocumented immigrants up to four years of legal residence in the United States if they cooperate with ongoing police investigations. The application was pending when he was deported, Sharma-Crawford said. She is asking the federal government to grant him the U Visa.
I have reached out to ICE for comment on Alegria-Zamora’s deportation and the circumstances of his visa application. I will update this post with their response.