A deportation case against a 49-year-old man detained by immigration-enforcement agents in June while working a landscaping job in Santa Ana has been terminated by an immigration court judge, his attorney said on Thursday, Feb. 12.
The Jan. 28 decision paves the way for Narciso Barranco of Tustin, a father of three U.S. Marines, to seek legal permanent residency in the United States.
“For the time being, we’re now actively pursuing his parole in place with (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services),” Barranco’s attorney, Lisa Ramirez, said by phone.
In the order terminating the deportation case, Judge Kristin S. Piepmeier said that Barranco had provided evidence that he was the father of three U.S.-born sons in the military, making him eligible to seek lawful status, The Associated Press reported.
Barranco was clearing weeds outside an IHOP restaurant in Santa Ana on June 21 when immigration agents approached him from behind, pinned him to the ground and handcuffed him. Video posted to social media shows he was hit multiple times in the head and taken with force.
Border Patrol officials later accused Barranco of swinging his weed whacker at agents and refusing to comply with authorities, but they did not provide evidence of that.
Barranco was held in an ICE detention facility in Adelanto for nearly a month before he was released on $3,000 bond on July 15 and fitted with an ankle monitor. More than a week later, during a press conference, he said “hope is still alive” for many in the facility.
Barranco, a Mexican national, has been in the United States for three decades. He had been trying to apply for parole in place, which allows undocumented family members of active-duty military members to stay in the U.S. for at least a year and that time frame can be extended, his son, U.S. Marine veteran Alejandro Barranco, has said.
One of his three Marine sons has left the service, while the other two were base at Camp Pendleton as of July.
In defending the agents’ aggressive arrest, federal authorities have said they had felt threatened by Barranco, and they accused him of raising his weed trimmer at them. They did not comment on Wednesday, Feb. 12, to the Southern California News Group on the judge’s ruling.
But DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told The Associated Press in a statement that the government would appeal the judge’s decision.
“The agents took appropriate action and followed their training to use the minimum amount of force necessary to resolve the situation in a manner that prioritizes the safety of the public and our officers,” McLaughlin said in Thursday’s statement.
Barranco’s attorney, Lisa Ramirez, said the next step was to petition for the parole in place. Once that petition is approved, he can apply for a work authorization.
“I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to achieve and accomplish for Mr. Barranco, and yet we’re not done,” Ramirez said. “For me, it’s not time to celebrate.
“It’s really a time to just continue moving forward until we’re able to secure his legal status,” she said.