Biden admin tried to protect families of men killed in the collapse of the Key Bridge from deportation..
Now DHS has started deportation procedures
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/nx-s1-5795825
MARTIN: Immigration lawyers say the Biden administration tried to help loved ones affected by the tragedy who were in the country illegally. But despite Biden's words and actions, two years later, some of those families are facing a different reality. NPR immigration policy correspondent Ximena Bustillo is first with this story.
BUSTILLO: They weren't married, but they were co-parents to their 7-year-old and close friends. That was the last time they spoke. Jose was headed to work that night on a road maintenance crew. Then a cargo ship crashed into the bridge that he was working on. His body took two months to find in the river. Zoila was left to parent their U.S. citizen daughter alone. Originally from Guatemala, she came to America illegally two decades ago. After the bridge collapsed, Zoila and others with immediate connection to those who died worked with immigration lawyer Rachel Girod to get protections from deportation.
RACHEL GIROD: Members of the Biden administration reached out saying that they were willing to use what power they had to help family members who had immigration needs.
BUSTILLO: That power was specific instructions on how to apply for programs that could protect Zoila from being a main target of deportation. Those programs would help her get a work permit, though they wouldn't give her permanent status. Her lawyer sent in her application to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
GIROD: There were 30 people who were going to be having any sort of immigration case that had any nexus to the bridge collapse. So 30 applications out of the millions of different pieces of paperwork that come to USCIS.
BUSTILLO: Some loved ones affected by the tragedy were able to get immigration protections within months. Others took longer. Zoila in December went to get her fingerprints taken - a routine next step. But this month, NPR learned that the Homeland Security Department denied her request to stay and told her that she is now in removal proceedings in immigration court. That means the agency is trying to deport her.