LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A young man who grew up in Lake County and was facing the potential for deportation received some good news on Monday.
Carlos Solorzano, 27, attended a deportation hearing in Anchorage, Alaska, on Monday, and was formally readmitted to the United States and given back his green card.
“They decided to drop the case and not pursue it,” Solorzano said.
Solorzano, a Marine Corps veteran and Lower Lake High School graduate, had been flagged for potential deportation in December after returning from a vacation in Mexico, as Lake County News reported in an article on his case last Saturday.
A permanent U.S. resident, Solorzano came to the attention of border agents for a six-year-old misdemeanor assault and battery conviction in Virginia, where he said he had defended himself in a bar fight.
While Solorzano's conviction was a misdemeanor, such convictions are interpreted as “aggravated felonies” under the United States' complex immigration laws, according to Solorzano's attorney, Margaret Stock.
Early Monday, hours before Solorzano's hearing, Stock was contacted by an attorney for the US government, who she said agreed with her that the misdemeanor should not be a deportable conviction.
Then, Solorzano reported to a 10 a.m. hearing at the Anchorage airport. Stock was not allowed to enter the hearing with him, so instead she provided a packet with a legal memo and other information to support Solorzano's case.
She said the person conducting the hearing was an immigration agent, not an attorney. “They frequently don’t understand the law,” nor do they read applicable cases, said Stock.
The hearing was very short, about 10 minutes. Solorzano said the officers didn't seem happy, and still warned that his conviction was a deportable offense, but nonetheless agreed to allow him to be readmitted.
He said his military service, and the fact that he was honorably discharged, seemed to help his case.
“I am extremely relieved,” he said.
In a Monday phone interview, Stock also told Lake County News that media coverage of Solorzano's case made an impact, noting that “the government pays attention” when stories about these issues end up in the press.
Now, Solorzano and Stock are working on his application for citizenship.
Stock said the application has been filed. Such applications usually are expedited for veterans, with Stock estimating that the process should take one to two months.
There is still a concern, she said, that the conviction for which Solorzano was flagged for deportation could create an issue in the citizenship application process.
Stock said few people understand how powerful border and customs agents are in such cases.
“They're just looking for people to deport,” she said.
Stock and her fellow immigration lawyers are “feeling just a tremendous amount of pressure right now,” adding, “they’re trying to go after everybody.”
Many people facing deportation don't have attorneys, and had Solorzano not had one, the result could have been very different, Stock said.
Stock, herself, a veteran, said it's very painful to her to see veterans who served honorably facing these kinds of actions.
The group Banished Veterans reported that there are thousands of such cases, with veterans of all eras who lived in the country for decades being deported due to run ins with the law that involve misdemeanor and other lower-level offenses.
There also have been cases where US citizens have been deported by accident, Stock said.
Congressman Mike Thompson said last week that he's planning on reintroducing a piece of legislation that will help expedite immigration cases involving veterans. Thompson had authored similar legislation in the last session of Congress, but it died in committee.
Stock said such legislation, had it already been in place, also could have helped Solorzano's case.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.