Milwaukee teacher’s aid says she has been told to self-deport to El Salvador

A Milwaukee teacher’s aide says she has been told to self-deport in a matter of days. 

Protestors turned out to support Yessenia Ruano before a hearing Friday at a Milwaukee office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

After that hearing, Ruano said she was instructed to return to her native El Salvador on Tuesday, June 3. 

Ruano’s attorney, Marc Christopher, called it a “sad day” both for Ruano’s family and for the greater Milwaukee community.

“We’ve got somebody who’s been here for a long time, who’s a wonderful contributing member of our society,” Christopher said. “I think it’s a sad day [and] commentary for our country that we’re in this position.”

Christopher said Friday he’s continuing to explore Ruano’s legal options.

Speaking through tears, Ruano told the crowd that’s she’s holding on to hope.

“My faith is inside of me,” Ruano said to cheers. “God is with me. You are with me.”

Ruano has an application pending for legal status as someone who was a victim of human trafficking, Christopher said. He said she’d be in danger if she’s forced to return to her home country.

“She has been human-trafficked, and she is asking the federal government for protection under the law so that she and her children can be safe here in the United States,” Christopher said. “I find that it’s disingenuous, then, for that same government, while that case is pending, to then tell her she needs to go back and subject herself to the very harm that she is seeking protection from.”

Ruano doesn’t have a criminal record. She works at the Academia de Lenguaje y Bellas Artes, a bilingual public school, and has 9-year-old twin daughters who were born in the U.S.

Ruano crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in 2011 after fleeing gang violence, advocates said.

Ruano said gang members murdered her brother, and she feared for her life.

She previously applied for what’s known as “withholding of removal,” but a court dismissed that case without denying or approving the application, advocates have said.

Ruano is now seeking a T-visa, which is aimed for victims of human trafficking.

In February, while she was being monitored by ICE, Ruano’s attorneys said she was granted a stay of deportation, allowing her more time to work on her application to remain in the country.

In a statement, state Rep. Ryan Clancy, D-Milwaukee, said Friday’s action shows that ICE “continues to act arbitrarily and with cruelty.”

“It is wrong and harmful for the Trump administration to forcibly remove Yessenia from our community,” Clancy said. “Our community and her daughters deserve to continue to have Yessenia with us here, and Yessenia deserves to continue to build a thriving life with her family in Milwaukee.”

U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, a Democrat representing Milwaukee, also condemned Ruano’s deportation, noting Ruano’s lack of criminal record.

“Deporting Yessenia will not make our country safer,” Moore’s statement said. “This order will only separate Yessenia from her children and her community while exposing her to danger she was forced to flee in El Salvador.”

ICE representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.