NEW YORK: A judge on Tuesday ordered the immediate release of an Ecuadorean immigrant who was held for deportation after he delivered pizza to a Brooklyn Army installation.
“Although he stayed in the United States unlawfully and is currently subject to a final order of removal, he has otherwise been a model citizen,” US District Judge Paul Crotty wrote of Pablo Villavicencio.
The Manhattan judge said Villavicencio, who was being held at a New Jersey lockup, can remain in the United States while he exhausts his right to try to gain legal status. Villavicencio applied to stay in the US after he married a US citizen, with whom he has two young girls.
The judge cited those children and said they are US citizens.
“He has no criminal history,” the judge wrote. “He has paid his taxes. And he has worked diligently to provide for his family.”
The US government, which had wanted the case moved from New York to New Jersey, did not immediately comment on the judge’s action.
Attorney Gregory Copeland, representing Villavicencio, said his lawyers expected him to be released Tuesday night. Villavicencio’s wife said she was home in Hempstead waiting for a car to take her to the detention center, where she would meet with him and lawyers.
Adriene Holder, the attorney-in-charge of the civil practice at the Legal Aid Society, said the rule of “law, humanity and morality” prevailed and the Villavicencio family has “finally received a crucial measure of relief from their 53-day nightmare.”
“This decision should serve as a rebuke against the Trump Administration and its merciless crusade to tear families apart,” Holder said in a statement.
The judge ruled after hearing arguments earlier Tuesday, when he put a government lawyer on the spot over the effort by immigration authorities to enforce a 2010 deportation order. He questioned the need to detain and quickly deport Villavicencio, who’s 35 years old.
“Well, the powerful are doing what they want, and the poor are suffering what they must,” the judge said after hearing Assistant US Attorney Joseph Cordaro defend the government’s actions.
“I mean, is there any concept of justice here or are we just doing this because we want to?” the judge asked. “Why do we want to enforce the order? It makes no difference in terms of the larger issues facing the country.”
Cordaro argued for the case to be transferred to New Jersey because Villavicencio is detained there. He said legal precedent dictated that New Jersey was the proper venue, an argument the judge rejected.
Cordaro said Villavicencio would still be able to pursue his application to become a legal US resident after he is deported.
The case has attracted widespread attention amid a crackdown by the administration of President Donald Trump on illegal immigration. Trump, a Republican, has said his policies are designed to keep the country safe.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said the federal government has “cruelly” kept Villavicencio from his wife, Sandra Chica, and two daughters “for no legitimate reason.”
Villavicencio was arrested on June 1 while making a delivery to the garrison in Fort Hamilton. When he arrived at Fort Hamilton, guards requested identification, and he produced a city identification card. A background check showed he had been ordered to leave the United States in 2010 but stayed.
Villavicencio’s two girls, ages 2 and 4, played with toys on Tuesday as courtroom spectators around them observed the legal arguments. Villavicencio was not in court.
Another judge had already temporarily blocked his deportation.
Judge: Release immigrant held after Army base pizza delivery
Judge: Release immigrant held after Army base pizza delivery
- A federal judge wants to know if the U.S. government has "any concept of justice" in mind for an Ecuadorean immigrant detained while delivering pizza to a Brooklyn Army installation
- Judge Paul Crotty on Tuesday said Pablo Villavicencio must be immediately released from a New Jersey lockup and can remain in the United States
Russia continues to accuse Ukraine of delaying planned exchange of dead fighters
Russian state media quoted Lt. Gen. Alexander Zorin, a representative of the Russian negotiating group, as saying that Russia delivered the first batch of 1,212 bodies of Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers to the exchange site at the border and is waiting for confirmation from the Ukrainian side, but that there are “signals” that the process of transferring the bodies will be postponed until next week.
Russia and Ukraine each accused the other on Saturday of endangering plans to swap 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed in action, which was agreed upon during direct talks in Istanbul on Monday that otherwise made no progress toward ending the war.
Vladimir Medinsky, a Putin aide who led the Russian delegation, said that Kyiv called a last-minute halt to an imminent swap. In a Telegram post on Saturday, Medinsky said that refrigerated trucks carrying more than 1,200 bodies of Ukrainian troops from Russia had already reached the agreed exchange site at the border when the news came.
In response, Ukraine said Russia was playing “dirty games” and manipulating facts.
According to the main Ukrainian authority dealing with such swaps, no date had been set for repatriating the bodies. In a statement on Saturday, the agency also accused Russia of submitting lists of prisoners of war for repatriation that didn’t correspond to agreements reached on Monday.
It wasn’t immediately possible to reconcile the conflicting claims.
In other developments, one person was killed and another seriously wounded in Russian aerial strikes on the eastern Ukrainian Kharkiv region. These strikes came after Russian attacks targeted the regional capital, also called Kharkiv, on Saturday. Regional police in Kharkiv said on Sunday that the death toll from Saturday’s attacks had increased to six people. More than two dozen others were wounded.
Russia fired a total of 49 exploding drones and decoys and three missiles overnight, Ukraine’s air force said Sunday. Forty drones were shot down or electronically jammed.
Meanwhile, Russia’s defense ministry said that its forces shot down 61 Ukrainian drones overnight, including near the capital.
Two people were wounded when a Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire at a chemical plant in the Tula region.
Against traditional norms, more Filipinas opt out of motherhood
- Percentage of childfree women in Philippines increased from 6% in 2013 to 11% in 2022, study shows
- Parenthood is seen as part of identity, with Constitution recognizing family as ‘foundation of the nation’
MANILA: When Jarrah Brillantes first realized she did not want children, the decision stemmed from her community development work — a mission she was unwilling to set aside. Over the years that choice only strengthened, shaped by the lifestyle she chose for herself.
A policy researcher from Iloilo City, Brillantes has been working with children in conflict zones, where she has seen how the environment affects a child’s development. Raising her own while continuing work, she felt, would not support their full potential.
“It would be unfair,” Brillantes, 38, told Arab News. “The change of residence. The change of career track. Studying again (in) my thirties. These would be challenging and probably selfish if I have a child.”
While Brillantes sometimes engages in babysitting for her family members, she never regrets her choice to be childfree.
“Having a typical Filipino family, children are raised as a tribe. Whenever I have to play the part of the temporary guardian to my niece and nephews, I see that is not the role I want to undertake,” she said.
“While some are (in) the parenting phase of their adult life, there are other things that we undertake too. We put in the work on our career, on our advocacies, our big goals. The most basic and affirming is, that my days go according to my needs and wants.”
Brillantes is one of the growing numbers of Filipino women who choose to have no children, marking a significant shift in a nation where motherhood is deeply tied to a woman’s identity.
A study published earlier this year by Dr. Anthony Luis B. Chua from the Cebu Institute of Medicine and two researchers from Michigan State University shows the prevalence of childfree women in the Philippines has increased dramatically over the past few years.
Childfree women are defined as those who “do not have children and do not want to have them in the future.”
The research, “Trends in the Prevalence of Childfree Women in the Philippines, 1993-2022,” indicates that the number of Filipinas making such a choice has jumped from nearly 4.2 percent in 2013 to 11.1 percent in 2022.
While the researchers linked the sharp rise with the passage of the 2012 Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act, and provided universal access to sexual education and contraception, women say it is in the first place a matter of personal choice.
“I do believe kids need both a father and a mother. When I decided not to marry, I knew I also preferred to remain childfree,” said Jeamma Claire Sabate, a 56-year-old government employee from Cainta, Rizal.
“In the 21st century, people recognize that women have the right to make choices that align with their preferences.”
In the deeply Catholic Philippines, the Constitution prohibits abortion and recognizes “the Filipino family as the foundation of the nation.”
Dr. Diana Veloso, associate professor at the Department of Sociology and Behavioral Sciences of De La Salle University, argues that this dominant cultural linking of womanhood to motherhood is a result of the colonial past that brought patriarchy to the Philippines.
“Precolonial culture was more egalitarian and gender inclusive. The increasing choice in favor of being childfree is a welcome change in that it is reversing the impact of such patriarchal gender norms that were brought about by colonialism. This is also a way of reclaiming our culture’s more inclusive gender norms in precolonial times,” she said.
“This also illustrates that parenthood is more intentional, rather than something that simply happens due to conformity to traditional gender norms.”
The visible social change does not mean, however, that women no longer face pressure to get married and have children.
“That is still the case in Philippine society. However, women have more options and people recognize that there are multiple avenues to fulfillment in this day and age — and that having children is not meant for everyone,” Veloso told Arab News.
Farah Decano, a law school dean from Pangasinan province, remembers experiencing pressure on motherhood from those around her.
“But I didn’t mind. I am cool about it,” she said, adding she prefers channeling her nurturing instincts elsewhere — looking after her nephews, nieces, and aging mother.
“It is fun because I can spoil them without having to worry about shaping their behavior,” she said. “And I get to enjoy a limited authority similar to a mother, too. I am already living the life. I cannot ask for more.”
Trump’s travel ban on 12 countries goes into effect early Monday
- The countries affected by the latest travel ban are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s order banning citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States goes into effect at 12:01 am ET (0401 GMT) on Monday, a move the president promulgated to protect the country from “foreign terrorists.”
The countries affected by the latest travel ban are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
The entry of people from seven other countries — Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela — will be partially restricted.
Trump, a Republican, said the countries subject to the most severe restrictions were determined to harbor a “large-scale presence of terrorists,” fail to cooperate on visa security, have an inability to verify travelers’ identities, as well as inadequate record-keeping of criminal histories and high rates of visa overstays in the United States.
He cited last Sunday’s incident in Boulder, Colorado, in which an Egyptian national tossed a gasoline bomb into a crowd of pro-Israel demonstrators as an example of why the new curbs are needed. But Egypt is not part of the travel ban.
The travel ban forms part of Trump’s policy to restrict immigration into the United States and is reminiscent of a similar move in his first term when he barred travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations.
Officials and residents in countries whose citizens will soon be banned expressed dismay and disbelief.
Chad President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said he had instructed his government to stop granting visas to US citizens in response to Trump’s action.
“Chad has neither planes to offer nor billions of dollars to give, but Chad has its dignity and its pride,” he said in a Facebook post, referring to countries such as Qatar, which gifted the US a luxury airplane for Trump’s use and promised to invest billions of dollars in the US
Afghans who worked for the US or US-funded projects and were hoping to resettle in the US expressed fear that the travel ban would force them to return to their country, where they could face reprisal from the Taliban.
Democratic US lawmakers also voiced concern about the policies.
“Trump’s travel ban on citizens from over 12 countries is draconian and unconstitutional,” said US Representative Ro Khanna on social media late on Thursday. “People have a right to seek asylum.”
Leo, the first US pope, criticizes nationalist politics at Sunday Mass
VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo criticized the emergence of nationalist political movements on Sunday, calling them unfortunate, without naming a specific country or national leader.
Leo, the first pope from the US, asked during a Mass with a crowd of tens of thousands in St. Peter’s Square that God would “open borders, break down walls (and) dispel hatred.”
“There is no room for prejudice, for ‘security’ zones separating us from our neighbors, for the exclusionary mindset that, unfortunately, we now see emerging also in political nationalisms,” said the pontiff.
Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, was elected on May 8 to succeed the late Pope Francis as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Church.
Before becoming pontiff, Prevost was not shy about criticizing US President Donald Trump, sharing numerous disapproving posts about Trump and Vice President JD Vance on X in recent years.
The Vatican has not confirmed the new pope’s ownership of the X account, which had the handle @drprevost, and was deactivated after Leo’s election.
Francis, pope for 12 years, was a sharp critic of Trump. The late pope said in January that the president’s plan to deport millions of migrants in the US during his second term was a “disgrace.”
Earlier, Francis said Trump was “not Christian” because of his views on immigration.
“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,” Francis said when asked about Trump in 2016.
Leo was celebrating a Mass for Pentecost, one of the Church’s most important holidays.
Chad announces suspension of visas to US citizens in response to Trump travel ban
- Chad’s president on Thursday said he is directing his government to suspend visas to US citizens “in accordance with the principles of reciprocity"
N’DJAMENA: Chad’s President Mahamat Idriss Deby has announced that his country will suspend the issuing of visas to US citizens in response to the Trump administration’s decision to ban Chadians from visiting the United States.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday resurrected a hallmark policy of his first term when he announced the visa ban on 12 countries including Chad, accusing them of having “deficient” screening and vetting, and historically refusing to take back their own citizens who overstay in the United States.
The new ban targets Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
There will also be heightened restrictions on visitors from seven others in the new travel policy, which takes effect Monday at 12:01 a.m.
In a Facebook post, Chad’s president on Thursday said he is directing his government to suspend visas to US citizens “in accordance with the principles of reciprocity.”
“Chad has no planes to offer, no billions of dollars to give but Chad has his dignity and pride,” Deby said, referring to the $400 million luxury plane offered to his administration as a gift by the ruling family of Qatar.
Republic of Congo calls the ban a mistake
The new travel policy has triggered varied reactions from Africa, whose countries make up seven of the 12 countries affected by Trump’s outright visa ban with some exemptions.
In the Republic of Congo, government spokesperson Thierry Moungalla said he believes the country was among those affected because of a “misunderstanding” over an armed attack in the US with the perpetrators “mistaken” to be from the Republic of Congo.
“Obviously, Congo is not a terrorist country, is not home to any terrorist, is not known to have a terrorist vocation. So we think that this is a misunderstanding and I believe that in the coming hours, the competent diplomatic services of the government will contact the American authorities here,” he said in the capital of Brazzaville.
In Sierra Leone, among countries with heightened travel restrictions, Information Minister Chernor Bah said the country is committed to addressing the concerns that prompted the ban.
“We will work with US authorities to ensure progress,” he added.
