A Hartford woman is hoping for a last-minute stay of deportation before she’s ordered to leave her family behind for London in 10 days.
Wayzaro Walton is staring down a scheduled deportation date of December 14.
She was 4 years old when she came to the United States from the United Kingdom. Now, she’s 34 and has a wife and a young daughter – they’re both American citizens.
Walton lost her permanent resident status in 2012 after getting into trouble with the law.
“It’s hard. I try not to think about it, but how could do you not think about it?” Walton said. “I just think about them – my wife and my daughter.”
Her lawyer, Erin O’Neil-Baker, is working through the appeals process. She’s arguing that Walton should stay because of a pending visa request.
“There’s no reason why she should leave this country if she has a pending petition,” said O’Neil-Baker. “She also has a motion to reopen that’s pending that goes to the core of her removal order. We want to reopen that, give her another chance.”
O’Neil-Baker said that Walton’s problems with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement started after Walton pleaded guilty to misdemeanor larceny in 2011. She received a one-year sentence.
Federal authorities may look at a sentence that’s one year or longer as a reason to give a removal order.
Last year, a bill was floated in Connecticut’s House of Representatives that would help out undocumented immigrants with cases similar to Walton’s. The bill, if passed, would’ve knocked off a day of the maximum jail time doled out for certain misdemeanor crimes – from 365 to 364 days.
Correction note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Walton came to the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant. In fact, she had legal resident status previous to 2012.
