Dear Friends,

Ernesto Reynoso Cardenas (A029-637-211), a long-time volunteer of the Solano AIDS Coalition and janitor at UC Berkeley, has been detained in immigration custody and separated from his family since June 5, 2015.

Please sign this petition asking that ICE use its prosecutorial discretion and release Ernesto.

Ernesto is from Mexico, where he used to be a highway patrol officer. He first moved to the United States around 1989, after he was threatened for opposing corruption in the Mexican government. Ernesto ended up working in Alaska, where he was mistakenly arrested for a robbery in 1992. Even though the charge was dismissed, Ernesto was convicted of a felony failure to appear because he missed a court hearing. INS then deported Ernesto without giving him notice and a hearing before an immigration officer.

Since November 2014, ICE has a new policy making anyone with a conviction or a recent entry to the United States a high priority for deportation. ICE claims that the people they detain and deport are threats to public safety. The policy doesn’t take into account important humanitarian factors. Ernesto is a classic example of why this policy doesn’t make sense.

Back in Mexico in 1992, Ernesto resumed his work as a highway patrol officer. As a result of his continued opposition to corruption in the police and his speaking up against human rights violations, Ernesto was detained in a Mexican jail for 5 years; he was beaten with rods and tortured with electro-shocks. His wife also suffered physical harm in Mexico because of Ernesto’s political opinions. When Ernesto was released, his family fled to the United States in 2008 to seek safety.

Since coming to California in 2008, Ernesto has been living in Vallejo and financially supporting his wife, his son, his son's fiancée, and his granddaughter – by working on the UC Berkeley campus. As a young and caring grandfather, Ernesto very much loves his 8-month-old US Citizen granddaughter and is her primary provider. His family has suffered from the separation since he was detained by ICE. Ernesto's niece, an active member of the U.S. Armed Forces, has been adversely affected because of her worry for her Uncle Ernesto.

Please help reunite Ernesto with his family. Sign this petition and ask ICE to release Ernesto on an order of supervision, on an ankle monitor, or with a bond: Call ICE Officer Degnim: (415) 844-5575.

Today, Ernesto is eligible for withholding of removal and other potential immigration relief. He received a positive determination after his reasonable fear interview with an asylum officer. However, ICE has refused to release him because they consider him a high priority for deportation. Ernesto has no other arrest or conviction besides his 23-year-old incident of failure to appear in court. To the contrary, he has over 37 letters of support from family, friends, and community members who speak only in the highest regard about his loving, caring, generous, supportive, hardworking and honest nature. He is loved and dearly missed.

Thank you for your support,

Pangea Legal Services