Immigration Activist Deported created: 4/14/2006 6:03:56 PM updated: 4/14/2006 10:26:19 PM
By Mike Owens I-Team
Cecilia Velasquez
KSDK-Two days before a big immigration reform rally in downtown St. Louis, a prime mover of the event was arrested and set for deportation.
Cecilia Velasquez was arrested in 2000 as she crossed the U.S border from Mexico, and refused to leave the country. In April of 2003, she was arrested again, following a complaint about her immigration status. Court records show she fought her deportation until August of 2005, and even went to the U.S. Court of Appeals, where she lost, and was found to be deportable.
Friday, her lawyer says she was sent to Mexico.
Velasquez is on the business license for a Spanish language newspaper published in south St. Louis, and was active in the Latino community. Her newspaper, "Red Latina", which means Latin Network, heavily promoted last week's immigration rally. One of her supporters says the timing of her deportation is not just a coincidence, and she was targetted by the government.
A spokesman for I.C.E., the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency of Homeland Security, denies any agenda, saying the arrest and removal is purely a coincidence.