Posted on 09/08/2026 7:08:10 AM PDT by TheDon
Rafael Vela Gonzalez was a few steps away from the front door of his Silver Lake home when two Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents grabbed him in early January.
The 66-year-old, originally from El Salvador, had been in the U.S. since he was a teenager.
...
He has spent nearly eight months in ICE detention
...
The 81-year-old and Vela Gonzalez have been together for more than 30 years"
...
Vela Gonzalez arrived in time to qualify for the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which provided nearly three million undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship. He applied for amnesty then, and received a temporary green card, his lawyer said.
Homeland Security claimed the office sent a notice advising him to submit an application for a permanent green card, as the temporary card expired in 1997, Darnell said. Vela Gonzalez never received the notice and didn’t know he had to apply for permanent status, she said.
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(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
“The 81-year-old and Vela Gonzalez have been together for more than 30 years”
...on the house by US citizens. “Never got the notice” is getting tiresome.
Tip O'Neill's deal w/Reagan. Amnesty for immigration control. "Amnesty" came immediately, but no immigration control did.
I'm happy to see at least one get deported from that scam on the American taxpayer.
could have applied for a spouse green card decades ago.
50 years of living in the USA illegally, and never bothered to get citizenship....deport him.
If one does not contest deportation do they still stay in detention for any duration?
Many people happily retire to El Salvador - he could do it without airfare.
Unless you're charged w/enforcing it.
He took that chance by remaining in the U.S. illegally - and lost.
LA Times is an insufferable rag that is well known for publishing pro-illegal invader sob stories on its front page most days and the lede for a lot of other anti-ICE stories as well.
I’m surprised it’s still in business - I canceled my subscription in 2000 and have never looked back, and only kept it that long b/c of the crossword puzzle.
“The Los Angeles Times has faced a ‘death spiral’ of financial losses, staff reductions, and editorial controversies under billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong. The paper... underwent its largest layoff in January 2024, cutting over 20% of its newsroom.”
With all the dangerous immigrants still on the loose, is this really the thing that ICE should be doing? Capturing and jailing a 66 year old man who’s been in the country since he was a teen?
It’s these type of stupid actions that turn a lot of people against ICE.
The stupid action was on the part of the illegal alien who in fifty years never bothered to apply for citizenship or legal status.
So now Itzel is in the running for sob story of the year. The poor old man is going to DIE in detention!!! He’s been here for 30 years!! OK, if he’s been here for 30 years, he’s had 30 years to straighten out his status. If he tried to do so under Biden, they would have given him papers no questions asked. Did he pay all his taxes in those 30 years? Undertake all obligations that a US citizen would have undertaken? Or did he have the best of both worlds? Itzel isn’t that interested in telling us that.
> Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Unless you’re charged w/enforcing it. <
Lots of truth there, unfortunately.
Can he speak English ?
Elderly, hell, he’s only 66.
I want them all gone. Every last one of them.
The stupid part is, if he’s an illegal, why has it been 8 months and he’s still in US lockup?
I thought nobody was above the law, or does that only apply to Trump?
Reagan spent years in Hollywood, Sacramento and D.C. surely he wasn’t so naive to be fooled by Tip.
Deport the law breaker.
Next!?!?!
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