Lawmakers, immigration advocates and doctors are urging Immigration and Custom Enforcement Officials to stop the deportation of New London resident Julian Rodriguez. Rodriguez's 14 year-old son Santi has a rare genetic condition called Chronic Granulomatous Disease, or CGD, which requires regular treatment at Connecticut Children's Medical Center.
Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal calls this deportation case unique because Santi and his mother are participants in a research study at the National Institutes of Health that could lead to a cure for CGD.
“Benefiting Santi will benefit the whole nation,” Blumenthal told reporters at Connecticut Children's Medical Center, “because it will enable the National Institutes of Health to study the condition, the rare genetic disorder that afflicts him.”
Lawyers for Rodriguez have filed a "national Interest waiver", a special petition that would halt a deportation if it is deemed to be in the national interest. Lawyers have also requested that ICE use their discretion to stop the deportation order.
Santi Rodriguez says it does not seem fair that his father has been targeted for deportation.
“I don't know what I would do, or be doing here without my Dad,” said Rodriguez, “he's helped me through so much in my life, he's always been there to support me and everything. And I really need him for the things that I am going to go through as I grow up.”
Julian Rodriguez and his wife Diana came to the U.S. from Columbia in 2000, seeking asylum from guerilla violence there. He is scheduled to be deported September 12th.
