Reports have indicated that Abraham Martinez-Antonio, the Havana native who was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in March, was one of 271 people arrested across the nation.
The sweep included Florida and 23 of its counties, with the most arrests coming from the larger counties including Miami-Dade, Broward, Duval and Orange counties.
Facing deportation, Martinez-Antonio was arrested on March 22, the last day of the Immigrations sweep that began on March 18.
Immigrations reports said that 99 of those arrested had prior criminal records and are subjected to arrest and removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Martinez-Antonio is currently being held in Fort Lauderdale at the Broward Transition Center, which is a facility for immigrants with no prior criminal record.
He is facing deportation back to Mexico.
As previously reported in the March 29 issue of The Herald, Martinez-Antonio’s lawyer, Neil Rambana of a Tallahassee law firm, is arranging to ask the immi- gration judge presiding over the case to reconsider the deportation since Martinez-Antonio is a respected member of the Gadsden County community who has had no prior arrests.
Story by: Chazré A. Hill