Colorado apology notwithstanding, Utah attorneys still worry about younger immigrants

KEY TAKEAWAYS

A Colorado sheriff has apologized to Utah's Caroline Dias Goncalves stemming from his department's role in her detention by immigration officials.
Still, immigration attorneys worry about the potential impact to younger immigrants of President Donald Trump's ongoing immigration crackdown.
Trump has said he's most focused on criminal immigrants, but the attorneys worry he is casting a wider net.

SALT LAKE CITY — While a Colorado sheriff has apologized for his office's role in the federal detention in June of a Utah woman originally from Brazil, Utah immigration attorneys are noting a measure of uncertainty among younger immigrants amid the continuing immigration crackdown.

The administration of President Donald Trump has said his priority in cracking down on illegal immigration is immigrants with criminal records. But Ysabel Lonazco, a West Valley immigration attorney, also noted that immigration officials have said any immigrant in the country illegally could face arrest during enforcement actions, potentially even certain "Dreamers" with otherwise clean records.

University of Utah student Caroline Dias Goncalves, 19, who came to Utah from Brazil as a child, was detained by U.S. immigration authorities for 15 days in June after a sheriff's deputy in Colorado pulled her over for driving too close to a semitruck.

The Trump administration crackdown "has had an impact on DACA recipients, who already live with ongoing uncertainty," Lonazco said, alluding to younger immigrants who have permission to remain in the country under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, created in 2012 during President Barack Obama's administration. "Dreamers," a term typically used in conjunction with DACA recipients, refers to people brought illegally to the United States from abroad as children by their parents.

Salt Lake immigration attorney Kendall Moriarty, for her part, thinks "no one is off limits" as Trump's immigration crackdown unfolds. "While Trump's tagline has been 'only criminals,' he is simultaneously changing the definition of 'criminal' to include civil violators of immigration laws," she said.

The undated photo shows Caroline Dias Goncalves. (Photo: Caroline Dias Goncalves family)

She holds out hope there would be less support for his administration if it were to more aggressively pursue "dreamers," younger immigrants like Dias Goncalves, but isn't so sure. "Dreamers" typically speak good English "and are, by all obvious indicators ... cultural Americans. That's why I hope he is met with more vocal opposition from his own corner if he pursues them. Do I think they are still at risk? Yes," she said.

In Dias Goncalves' case, she made it onto the radar screen of federal immigration officials on June 5 after she was pulled over while driving near Grand Junction, Colorado, by Mesa County sheriff's deputy Alexander Zwinck. While a check by Zwinck with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security showed that Dias Goncalves "appeared to be clear of any criminal involvement," it also showed that she had overstayed terms of the visa allowing her to enter the United States from Brazil in the early 2010s. While Dias Goncalves was brought to the United States at a young age and has lived here most of her life, typical of many DACA recipients, she or her representatives haven't made a claim to DACA status.

Zwinck conveyed information about Dias Goncalves' whereabouts to federal immigration authorities, who detained her after the deputy let her go with a warning for driving too closely to the truck. She was held for 15 days in an immigration detention facility in Aurora, Colorado, before her release on June 20. Turns out, Colorado law limits the authority of local and state law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, prompting a public apology last Wednesday,from Mesa County Sheriff Todd Rowell.

"Based on our findings, the Mesa County Sheriff's Office should not have had any role in the chain of events leading to Miss Dias Goncalves' detention, and I regret that this occurred. I apologize to Miss Dias Goncalves," Rowell said in a statement.

Zwinck, who is being sued by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, received punishment of three weeks unpaid administrative leave and reassignment in the sheriff's office, and four others in the sheriff's office also faced disciplinary action in the matter.

Meantime, immigrant advocates are increasingly speaking out on behalf of younger immigrants like Dias Goncalves. While Lonazco said those with DACA status have a measure of protection from deportation as long as the program remains in effect, TheDream.us, an advocacy group that provides scholarships to "undocumented immigrant youth," is putting out a broader call. TheDream.us has aided Dias Goncalves in her studies at the University of Utah, and Susan Collins, TheDream.us chief of staff and government affairs, wrote an opinion piece for the Deseret News last month on the issue.

"Instead of more detentions and deportations, America's interests and values are better served by delivering education, enforcement protections and permanent legal status for 'Dreamers.' Caroline and countless others in her shoes should not have to live in fear or with tenuous futures in the only home many have ever known," Collins wrote.

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