Milwaukee Teacher’s Aide Spared From Deportation. For Now
Protestors support mother of two daughters whose brother was killed in El Salvador.
Yessenia Ruano gestures toward her heart after learning she’ll have more time to work on application for legal status before being deported. Scores of protestors turned out to support Ruano on Friday, Feb. 14 before he appointment at the Milwaukee field office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Courtesy of Voces de la Frontera
A teacher’s aide who works for Milwaukee Public Schools has been spared deportation. For now.
Scores of protestors turned out to support Yessenia Ruano on Friday morning, before her scheduled check-in with officials at the Milwaukee branch of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE.
The appointment could have resulted in Ruano’s detention before she was sent back to her native El Salvador.
But, with the help of attorneys, Ruano said she was ultimately granted more time while federal officials consider her pending application for a type of legal status that’s granted to victims of human trafficking.
Ruano told a crowd of supporters she was looking forward to resting again after multiple sleepless nights.
“Thank you for the support, for your prayers, for everything,” Ruano said, while blinking back tears of relief. “I love you so much.”
Ruano was flanked by her twin 9-year-old daughters, who are U.S. citizens after being born in the U.S. After learning about the extension, one of the girls jumped up and down with excitement and kissed her mom on the cheek.
Advocates say Ruano came to the U.S. in 2011 after fleeing gang violence in El Salvador.
“Her brother had been murdered,” said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, who leads the immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera, in an interview with WPR. “Her greatest fear was not just the danger to her own life but, if she were to take her children back, the danger to them as well.”
Ruano now works at Academia de Lenguaje y Bellas Artes, a bilingual school on Milwaukee’s south side.
“We cannot and will not remain silent or idle, while a dedicated and inspiring teaching assistant in our public schools is taken from her classroom,” Neumann-Ortiz told the crowd gathered in Milwaukee. “Yessenia’s an essential worker at a time when there’s a shortage of teachers.”
A years-long effort to stay in the US
Ruano previously requested what’s known as “withholding of removal,” a type of protection that’s granted to people who can prove they fear being persecuted in their home country.
An immigration court dismissed that case in 2023 without denying or approving Ruano’s application for withholding of removal, said Allison Mignon, an attorney who’s representing Ruano in response to deportation proceedings.
Ruano switched from pursuing an application for withholding of removal after discovering she could be eligible for what’s known as a T visa or T status due to Ruano’s experience being trafficked by coyotes, Neumann-Ortiz said.
Mignon and other attorneys with the law firm Layde & Parra filed for a stay of deportation, asking officials not to kick Ruano out of the country while U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is still deciding on her T visa application. There’s not a specific length of time set for the extension, and it could depend on whether Ruano gets expedited processing of her T visa application, Mignon wrote in an email to WPR.
Ruano doesn’t have a criminal record, and Neumann-Ortiz says it’s unlikely she would have been targeted for deportation under some prior administrations.
Last month, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that rescinded a Biden-era order known as the Revision of Civil Immigration Enforcement Policies and Priorities. The now-rescinded order set priorities for immigration enforcement with a stated focus on people who threaten “public safety” or “national security.”
“The repeal of this prioritization of enforcement does make people vulnerable,” Neumann-Ortiz said. “And the problem now is that ICE is also being pressured to meet these quotas … and that includes, you know, people who have been good members of our community who have no record. So people like Yessenia are now a target for deportation.”
The protestors who turned out in support of Ruano included clergy members, the president of Milwaukee’s teacher’s union, as well as local and state representatives.
Ruano read from several letters of support, which were written by co-workers, parents and children at the Academia de Lenguaje y Bellas Artes.
One of those letter was decorated like a valentine, with a cut-out heart pasted onto red construction paper.
The immigration appointment had been scheduled for Valentine’s Day, and Ruano wore a pink knit hat with her heavy winter coat. On her wrist was a GPS-tracking device, issued by ICE.
A Milwaukee teacher’s aide has been spared deportation. For now. was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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Would it be possible for each US Representative and US Senator to have “100 US Citizenship Awards” covering these situations?
The US Representative or Senator would look at the case, the person, the . . . and make a decision: This person should be able to apply for US Citizenship.