FOCUS worked alongside several community organizations, including YAYA, Hope CommUnity Center, and the National Farm Workers Ministry, to bring local community member Hector Maniau home after he was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at his home.

Hector has been on the path to gain citizenship ever since he came to the United States as a teenager.  He became a legal adult before he could obtain citizenship and since then he's fought roadblock after roadblock to become a legal citizen.  None of that mattered, however, once he was in a Miami ICE detention center, in line to be deported.  

His wife, Melissa, turned to her community to help organize around Hector as she petitioned for prosecutorial discretion, which would allow certain qualified immigrants to avoid deportation. Her appeal was successful. Hector now has just a year in which to make a permanent appeal for citizenship.  But his story is a reminder to all of us that we must continue to organize for justice for the Hectors of our community, to challenge the status quo that divides people living, working, and raising families here into "us" and "them."  

Read more about Hector's story here and here.