A Reseda man Monday expressed his happiness and gratitude for being home again after spending several months in federal custody following an arrest at a Burbank Home Depot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Juan Carlos Meija said he had been in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention following his arrest in June.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meija, who is undocumented, said he was buying work material with his son when he came across federal immigration agents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo-hundred two days I\u2019m in jail. It\u2019s so hard to stay there,\u201d the Guatemala native, who has lived in the U.S. for over 20 years, said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Before his release, Meija was kept at Texas detention centers. Prior to that, he was detained at a facility near the Mexican border, which may have put him on a fast track to deportation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But a mix of good will and good fortune led him to an attorney and a move to what his attorney sees as a more favorable detention center in El Paso.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had told the family, \u2018Be careful that he should not sign this voluntary return. He has a good case. This is one, even if he has to tough it out. This is one worth fighting,\u2019\u201d Jeremy Anderson, Meija\u2019s attorney, recalled telling his family.<\/p>\n
Anderson said because Meija has \u201clittle to no criminal record\u201d along with the fact that he has spent more than 10 years in the U.S. may give him a fighting chance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meija was able to return home after being released on bail.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so happy to see my life. I\u2019m happy to see my kids. And I\u2019m happy to see all my friends pray for me,\u201d he said. \u201cI just want to say, \u2018Thank you. Thank you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
As Meija\u2019s case moves through the immigration system, Anderson said he\u2019s hopeful even under the current climate of the Trump administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEven in the context of this administration, a strong case is a strong case,\u201d Meija\u2019s attorney said. \u201cAnd to the credit of good immigration judges, we’re not seeing broad deviation from the legal standards.” <\/p>\n
Anderson added that he believes the system is still working even though it\u2019s \u201cbeing put under more pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
NBC Los Angeles reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment about Meija\u2019s bail and release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Reseda man Monday expressed his happiness and gratitude for being home again after spending several months in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":512241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,409,2961,224,5337,81196],"class_list":{"0":"post-512240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-immigration","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-losangeles","14":"tag-reseda"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115885584782526767","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}