A Mexican immigrant who developed an improbable acting career while living illegally in the Atlanta area has been granted a one-year reprieve from deportation.
Tony Guerrero, 40, of Dunwoody said the government recently informed him he had been given a form of relief called “stay of removal” and that he may apply for it again in a year.
In a twist of art imitating life, Guerrero starred in a low-budget film about a naive illegal immigrant from Mexico who achieves his American dream of landing a top corporate job. “Undocumented Executive” was shot in the Atlanta area and premiered last year. Guerrero said he has also landed small roles in the forthcoming comedies “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues” and “Dumb and Dumber To.”
“I’m so relieved,” Guerrero said. “Right now, I feel like I can breathe for the very first time.”
Guerrero overstayed a visa after he entered the U.S. from Mexico in the 1990s. In 1999, police arrested him on a charge of driving without a license in DeKalb County. He agreed to voluntarily leave the country and returned to Mexico. But he illegally re-entered the United States a month later to be with his first wife and son.
Guerrero got divorced and then remarried. And in 2011, he applied for legal status in Atlanta, citing his marriage to a U.S. citizen. Authorities arrested him on the spot because he had re-entered the country illegally.
In September of last year, he agreed in immigration court to voluntarily leave the country in lieu of being deported. But then he continued to fight in court so that he could stay in the U.S. Among other things, he and his attorney cited his strong connections to the community and his marriage to a U.S. citizen.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement initially said he didn’t qualify for such relief because he pleaded guilty to simple battery in 1999 in a case involving his first wife. A Gwinnett County State Court judge reduced that charge to disorderly conduct last year.
An ICE spokesman said last week that his agency exercised “prosecutorial discretion” in granting Guerrero relief.
“ICE exercises prosecutorial discretion on a case-by-case basis, considering the totality of an individual’s case,” ICE spokesman Vincent Picard said, “including but not limited to criminal history, immigration history, family and community ties, humanitarian issues and whether he or she is likely to receive temporary or permanent status or other relief from removal.”
Critics say the Obama administration’s use of prosecutorial discretion amounts to an illegal end run around Congress, which is now deeply divided over legislation to overhaul the immigration system.
“This case is just one example of countless deportations that are being stalled by Obama’s political appointees,” Phil Kent, a member of Georgia’s Immigration Enforcement Review Board, said of the reprieve granted to Guerrero.
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