The woman arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Salt Lake City International Airport has a valid work permit. Plus, a crucial notice to appear in immigration court was sent to the wrong address.
Security camera footage and video widely shared online show officers in plain clothes tackling the 5-foot-tall, 39-year-old woman to the floor and dragging her as she kicks and screams, “Help me! I have my papers!”
A work permit does not grant legal status for residency, but it suggests to a layperson that they’re on the right path with their immigration case, said her attorney, Adam Crayk. KUER reviewed the permit as shared by Crayk. The permit doesn’t expire until 2029.
Over email, an ICE spokesperson told KUER, “Work authorization doesn’t confer legal status. The final order of removal makes her illegally present.”
In 2020, the woman was ordered deported because she failed to appear for her immigration court appointment. In an Oct. 30 email to KUER, an ICE spokesperson cited that as a reason for her arrest.
A notice for her to appear in court was sent in late 2019 to an address in West Valley City. Crayk said she’s never lived there. The notice did not come from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, he added. Crayk does not know how the notice was issued, but now believes his client still has a pending asylum case with Citizenship and Immigration Services.
His client truly believed she was doing things the right way, Crayk said. She fled El Salvador due to violence and persecution, so she applied for asylum. That led to her eligibility for a work permit.
When Citizenship and Immigration Services does not approve an asylum case for someone in the country illegally, it refers them to immigration court. Individuals can then plead their cases before a judge. Crayk wonders why the agency continued to renew the woman’s work permit when she had already been ordered removed. Typically, applicants cannot renew their work permits once their immigration court case has been denied.
Crayk plans to file a motion to reopen the case in immigration court due to the government’s failure to notify his client and the renewal of her work authorization despite her removal order. Legally, she cannot be removed from the country while the court considers the motion.
When he first saw a video of the arrest, Crayk said it was “what we’ve grown to expect.”
“For Utah, though, I was a little bit shocked,” he added.
In the past, he said, ICE operations in the state have been relatively calm. Some agents who are friends of his have taken the time to explain to bystanders why they’re making the arrest. Crayk has another client who was arrested in the airport, but officers removed him from public view.
“This one was a grab and drag in front of the public for a long period of time,” he said. “Which, to me, I think a lot of people are enjoying, because that's what they voted for.”
For him, though, the arrest was disturbing and undeserved. His client’s record consists of two parking tickets and a Class C misdemeanor for parking too close to a crosswalk, plus a federal misdemeanor charge for crossing the border illegally, he said.
The woman is currently held in the Salt Lake County Metro Jail.
A spokesperson for ICE did not answer KUER’s question of whether the woman was properly notified of her court date. They referred KUER to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees the courts. That agency’s press email is not being monitored due to the government shutdown.
Macy Lipkin is a Report for America corps member who reports for KUER in northern Utah.
