The back story of Enrique Dominguez situation is unique and unusual to say the least.  In 1996, Enrique was arrested for a drug charge in the height of the crack epidemic of the 1990’s. This happened while his only brother Eleazar Dominguez was murdered.  So when Enrique got arrested, he couldn’t even bond out to attend his brother’s burial. A detainer was put on him by the former Immigration and Naturalization Service(INS) because of a couple bills President Clinton signed into law that year that went into effect soon after.  These Laws are the Anti-terrorist and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996(IIRIRA).  

Despite Enrique  living in the US all his life (since the tender age of a month) and raised and educated as an American (with a legal standing at the time of his arrest and  being technically born outside the US), these laws affected him, thus the detainer.  A felony conviction in Enrique’s case was considered an aggravated felony in Immigration court and a deportable offense.

At the time, Enrique just wanted to get out of jail to bury his only brother and would basically do whatever it took to get out as soon as possible (even though he was unable to).  His attorney at that time(a public defender) ill-advised Enrique and scared his family into convincing him to plead to a sentence of 5 years department of corrections, without knowing the full consequence of that decision.

So after doing the time and trying to withdraw his guilty plea, Enrique was in immigration custody, still without a bond.  At that time, his family hired an Immigration attorney who didn’t even show up to his hearing but instead sent one of her paralegals.  That day Enrique was ordered deported, in September of 1998 regardless if he lived in the US all his life or if all his family was in the US!  Since then, Enrique has a deportation order in effect and has tried to fight it legally.

 So basically, that conviction spiraled an effect that caused Enrique to have his legal standing as a Permanent Resident taken (even though all his immediate family-parents and siblings-are naturalized US citizens). The IIRIRA and the AEDPA took any reliefs under the 212(C) of the INA(Immigration and Nationality Act).

 Ironically, so much time has passed, that the ones in position of power in the Immigration and appellate courts are saying that Enrique is time-barred from any relief(even though Enrique has researched and found cases that outline that he does have a relief that help his cause).  Enrique has appealed his deportation order Pro-se, all the way up to the Supreme Court to only be denied.  So now he has no other choice but to vacate his original conviction, to even have a chance to reopen his immigration case and clear the deportation order or have laws like the IIRIRA and AEDPA repealed. 

Enrique is not perfect and committed a mistake decades ago as a young man, which he has paid for. It has affected his life until this very day.  Enrique has a family he needs to come home to.  Aside from his father, mother, and siblings, Enrique has a son who is being raised without him. The distance is tearing them apart. Currently, Enrique is in Mexico still fighting to come back home and be with his family.  He is barely surviving in a country that's foreign to him and whose wages don’t equal to those of the US. Enrique is having a difficult time to even provide the basic necessities for his son, much less afford a paid attorney. Having elderly parents with a limited income and siblings with families of their own to take care of, makes it exceedingly difficult to raise any funds amongst them.  This is why Enrique needs your help, to fight this uphill battle.  Your help and benevolence is highly appreciated.  To help, Enrique’s family have set up a Go Fund Me page here:

https://gofund.me/5559021d