Lawyers have filed a motion to reopen Gerson Turcios’s immigration case (photo courtesy of Idania Williams).
A motion has been filed in New York City Immigration Court to reopen the case of Gerson Josue Santamaria Turcios, a 23-year-old Honduran immigrant living in Rhinebeck who was ordered expelled from the United States in 2023 after he failed to show for two hearings, according to documents reviewed Thursday by The Daily Catch.
The filing of the motion, which took place Tuesday, is supposed to automatically prevent Turcios from being deported while the motion request is being considered, according to the Executive Office for Immigration Review.
Meanwhile, a federal judge in Manhattan earlier this week rejected a last-minute bid by Turcios to stop his deportation, ruling that such cases must be handled by a higher court.
In a decision issued late Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Garnett denied Turcios’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus and an emergency injunction that sought to pause his deportation long enough for him to reopen his immigration case.
But now that the motion to reopen the immigration case has been received at the court at 290 Broadway in Manhattan, the federal court case will take a back seat, sources close to the case said.
Turcios’s spokesman, Jon Reinish, expressed hope Thursday. “We will continue to fight for Gerson to be returned to his community as he pursues the lawful processes to remain in the country in the immigration courts,” said Reinish.
Judge Margaret M. Garnett said this week that she does not have jurisdiction to rule on Turcios’s immigration case (photo from Wikimedia Commons).
Turcios’s legal battle traces back to December 2019, when he crossed the southern border near Hidalgo, Texas, illegally, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reports cited in Garnett’s decision. Then a minor, he was detained by Border Patrol and placed in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Garnett said. Weeks later, federal authorities released Turcios, then 17, to his adult brother in Rhinebeck.
In the six years since his arrival here, Turcios has received a diploma from Rhinebeck High School, become a fluent English speaker, and launched a successful landscaping business, according to friends and teachers. Community members have raised more than $75,000 to mount a legal defense to help him stay.
According to ICE records, Immigration authorities mailed Turcios a notice to appear in court in Manhattan, initiating deportation proceedings. The first hearing, scheduled for November 2020, was adjourned multiple times over the next three years. But when the hearing finally convened on Aug. 4, 2023, Turcios failed to appear.
He also didn’t show for a second hearing on Nov. 3, 2023, according to Garnett’s decision. With no response from Turcios, an immigration judge granted the government’s motion to proceed in absentia and issued an order of removal, mailing a copy of the decision to Turcios’s Rhinebeck address, Garnett’s opinion reads.
Since his arrival to Rhinebeck in 2019, Turcios has learned English and earned a diploma (photo courtesy of Idania Williams).
On July 18, two weeks ago, ICE agents detained Turcios in Rhinebeck during an enforcement action intended for another individual. He was carrying a valid Honduran passport, according to ICE, paving the way for expedited deportation.
Within days, he was transferred between detention facilities in New York and Nassau County and was set to be moved to a Louisiana center for final processing when his lawyers filed the emergency petition in federal court.
Turcios’s attorneys argue he never received proper notice of his hearings and deserves another chance to present his case for remaining in the country. Under immigration rules, he may also seek to reopen his case with the Board of Immigration Appeals, which has the power to stay his removal while reviewing his claims. Even if deported, U.S. law allows him to continue pursuing such a motion from abroad.
Judge Ronnie Abrams, acting in a temporary and volunteer capacity, initially granted a short-term order set to expire on Wednesday, July 30, blocking Turcios’s transfer out of New York while the petition was considered.
But after a hearing on Wednesday, July 23, she ruled that the court could not legally halt a deportation order, even temporarily. Garnett’s decision echoed that conclusion.
Turcios remains in ICE custody at the Orange County Correctional Facility in Goshen.
The post Lawyers File Motion to Reopen Gerson Turcios’s Immigration Case, Likely Preventing His Immediate Deportation first appeared on The Daily Catch.