Senator Murray Calls on ICE to Stop Deportation of Seattle Small Business Owner, Return Him to Washington State

***VIDEO OF EDUARDO'S DETAINMENT ALONG WITH OTHER PHOTO AND VIDEO OF EDUARDO AND HIS WIFE ARE AVAILABLE TO THE PRESS HERE***

Seattle, WA - Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement upon hearing news that Eduardo Aguirre Esparza, the husband of an American citizen, was forcefully detained and in the process of being deported before courts can consider emergency relief:

"On Thursday, ICE needlessly detained Eduardo Aguirre Esparza, a local Seattle small business owner with no criminal history. This is a man who is married to an American citizen and with deep ties to our local community who was working hard to pursue a legal pathway to lawful permanent residence. For the federal government to waste its resources to forcefully detain and deport Eduardo and tear apart an American family is plain sick. Our immigration enforcement should be focused on violent criminals and keeping Americans safe-deporting hardworking people like Eduardo makes no one safer, it's just cruel and wrong.

"I am demanding that DHS return Eduardo to Washington state so that he may receive due process and have access to counsel-flying Eduardo to Texas away from his lawyers to try and deport him is fundamentally wrong and un-American. I hope others in Washington state will join me in calling for Eduardo's immediate return home so that the courts can fairly consider his case."

Eduardo Aguirre Esparza is an undocumented immigrant, married to an American citizen. He's a hardworking small business owner who owns a remodeling company in Seattle. He's lived in Seattle for 23 years. Following his detainment to the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWIPC) on Thursday, Eduardo was flown out of Washington state on ICE Air at 2 AM on Saturday morning without notice to anyone, including his attorney and family. After several stops along the way, Eduardo is now being held in Texas where his family suspects ICE intends to conduct an expedited deportation hearing to remove Eduardo from his home as quickly as possible and without representation of counsel. Senator Murray is joining Eduardo's family in demanding that he be returned to Western Washington to receive his due process protections.

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