Christopher Peak Photo
Salma Sikandar, with her son.
An immigrant mother from New Haven who faces deportation back to Bangladesh will be able to move her son into college, after immigration authorities granted her an emergency stay.
With help from elected officials, Salma Sikandar, a Bangladeshi immigrant who overstayed her visa in 1999, was able to put off an order to leave the country this week.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Board of Immigration Appeals, the Justice Department’s internal 17-member panel that conducts “paper reviews” of cases, denied Sikandar’s request to reopen her case. But just a few hours later, U.S. Immigrations & Customs Enforcement (ICE) granted a stay of her removal order.
Her son, Samir Mahmud, wept at a press conference in City Hall on Tuesday morning, as he thought about how his mom wouldn’t be there for his move-in day at Quinnipiac University next week. It now looks like she’ll be able to take him back-to-school shopping while her case continues to work its way through the legal system.
“I am delighted that Salma Sikandar’s stay of removal has been granted by ICE,” U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who contacted ICE about Sikandar’s case last month, was quoted as saying in a statement released by her office. “We will continue working with her as well as her family and lawyers to ensure she can remain in the United States.”
Outside the federal courthouse in Hartford, members of Unidad Latina en Acción in Hartford filmed the family’s reaction after their lawyer told them the news. Click the video below to watch.
