Justice...or Luck?

"Carlos Quintanilla, a Worcester janitor and father of three, is celebrating his first year as a legal immigrant since he slipped over the border 21 years ago, fleeing El Salvador’s vicious civil war. A Boston immigration judge halted his deportation late last year, saying he feared for Quintanilla’s children if he sent their father away.  A far different scene has been playing out in Marlborough, where Mauricio Perozin spent the past several weeks saying goodbye. The married father of two, here for more than 13 years, had begged not to be deported to Brazil, but federal officials refused to halt his case.  Last week, days before he was to leave, federal officials offered to let Perozin stay another year. That abrupt change came after the Globe asked about his case. It is not clear what will happen when the year is up.  The starkly different treatment of two men with families and ties to the community underscores the seemingly random decisions meted out by immigration officials seven months after the Obama administration encouraged agents to shift their focus away from such cases." - Maria Sacchetti, Boston Globe, Jan. 16, 2012.