In what is expected to be a far reaching opinion, a federal judge in San Antonio has rejected a request to allow a 10 year old illegal immigrant who is suffering from cerebral palsy to be released from Border Patrol detention, saying the law does not give judges the right to pick and choose who should be covered by immigration statutes, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
The ruling comes in the high profile case of RosaMaria Hernandez, who came to the U.S. with her illegal immigrant parents. She was arrested by the Border Patrol as she traveled from the family home in Laredo to Corpus Christi for an operation, and she was taken into custody as soon as she was released from the hospital.
A Border Patrol agent at a checkpoint near Freer determined that the girl was in the country illegally and is not covered by the DACA program.
Several immigrant rights groups sued the Border Patrol and the Department of Health and Human Services, which operates the detention shelter where the girl is now held, demanding that she be released.
But, in a scathing three page ruling, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery said no way.
"It appears to be admitted that R.M.H. (the girl) and her mother, Felipa De La Cruz, are in the United States illegally, Biery wrote. "While the Court has great empathy for R.M.H and her mother, the law does not allow the Court to pick and choose the application of legal standards based on empathy."
U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-El Paso), who was one of several high profile immigrant rights supporters who argued for the girl's release, was disappointed.
"In no way could any one describe her as a threat to this country," he told News Radio 1200 WOAI.
In fact, O'Rourke went one step further, and demanded the mother's arrest too.
"Petitioners are requested to address the Court's inquiry over how R.M.H. and her mother will be successful on the overarching issue of the law and their illegal status," Biery wrote. "It would be also be helpful if the government would advise the Court as to why Felipa De La Cruz has not been apprehended and subject to the same deportation procedures as apparently are underway for R.M.H. Mother and daughter could then be reunited in their home country."