A San Diego lawmaker is urging federal officials to release a UC San Diego senior who was detained Monday night by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the San Ysidro border because of a mistake made per his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status.
Orr Yakobi, 22, was arrested by agents after he and a friend were leaving the Las Americas outlet mall near the border and accidentally entered southbound Interstate 8o5 instead of northbound. With no way to exit the freeway, they were “forced into Mexico” to turn around.
DACA recipients, otherwise known as Dreamers, are not allowed to leave the U.S. without certain documentation, so Yakobi was denied re-entry into the country and was detained.
Assemblyman Todd Gloria signed a letter Tuesday asking Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to release Yakobi.
“Mr. Yakobi is an excellent student who is just a few classes away from graduation with a computer science degree from UCSD and has met all of the terms of the DACA program,” Gloria wrote. “Crossing the border was clearly an accident, one that apparently happens with regularity after people leave this outlet mall.”
I’ve just signed a letter urging @ICEgov to release Orr Yakobi, a @UCSanDiego #DACA student detained at the border for making a wrong turn & accidentally crossing. #FreeOrr pic.twitter.com/AuzE4ypQKw
— Asm. Todd Gloria (@AsmToddGloria) January 10, 2018
Yakobi’s family is from Israel, and they have hired an immigration attorney to help their son, according to a 10News report.
“Yakobi’s parents brought him to the U.S. at a young age. He qualified for the DACA program, and the U.S. is the only home he’s known,” attorney Jacob Sapochnick told 10News.
He said the student’s mistake was an honest one.
“He just literally drove out the border, made a U-turn, explained it to the officers, (and) they refused to listen,” Sapochnick said.
–Staff
