SAN DIEGO _ When the grandmother of a San Diego military veteran's family was sent back to Mexico this month, her devastated relatives focused on the central role she played in the family, helping raise her two small grandchildren whose father is serving as a contractor in Afghanistan.
More details of her deportation came out last week, as immigration officials offered details of a felony welfare fraud conviction against the woman, Clarissa Arredondo, and disclosed that she had previously been deported.
Arredondo, 43, was removed to Tijuana on March 3 after being detained on Valentine's Day. Hers is one of many cases around the nation arousing attention as President Donald Trump rolls out his immigration policies.
Arredondo was previously removed from the U.S. in 2005, said Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Mack said that when Arredondo tried to enter the United States at the Otay Mesa port of entry then, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers determined that Arredondo did not have authorization to enter the country and sent her back to Mexico.
Mack said border officials used a process called "expedited removal," which gave them the authority to send Arredondo back across the border without letting her see an immigration judge.
Because that order was still on her record, when immigration officials targeted her last month, they were within their authority to remove her again without giving her a hearing with an immigration judge, Mack said.
Arredondo was targeted "based on her immigration and criminal history," Mack said.
Bardis Vakili, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union in San Diego, said he found the use of the expedited process in Arredondo's case troubling.
"Any time we hear that a longtime member of our community has been ripped from her family and deported without seeing a judge, we are going to be concerned," Vakili said in an emailed statement. "We have already documented ICE's utter disregard for the sanctity of military families, and this incident just continues the agency's pattern of terrorizing patriotic immigrant communities."
