A Texas grandmother who has resided in the United States for over two decades faces potential deportation to a deadly future due to her felony charges amid the Trump administration's crackdown on border security.
Margarita Avila, a landscaper, was arrested and charged with assault on March 12 for allegedly attacking a postal worker with a weed eater. She has now been detained by federal immigration authorities, which has jeopardized her immigration proceedings. Avila was seeking asylum.
If Immigration and Customs Enforcement ends up deporting her, she will return to a life-threatening future in Belize, her daughter, Lisbet Azucena Avila, told Newsweek.
Avila escaped cartel violence in Belize in 2001, Lisbet said, like many other immigrants from Latin America who seek asylum. "She's running away from a cartel that was threatening her life back in 2001 when she first came. And then when she left [for Belize] in 2012, she had to come right back six months later because the threat was still there," she said.
Avila is legally in the country, Lisbet asserted, saying that if Avila were to go back to Belize, "that would be the last time that we see our mom." Avila had initially self-deported to Belize in 2012 when she found she had a deportation order. However, she never informed federal authorities about that.
When she realized that the violent threats in Belize prevailed, she returned to the US and sought asylum. According to Lisbet, Avila was working at a new customer's home in Spring, Texas, where the altercation happened. Avila's family claimed that she attacked the worker in self-defense and that she had been wrongfully charged.
Avila reportedly saw the van, but since nobody was outside the van, she proceeded to "finish it very quickly."
"She never heard the lady come up to her from behind. She was cutting, and next thing you know, she just felt something hit her face," Lisbet said.
In a video recorded by her sister-in-law Jackie, who sensed something was amiss, Lisbet alleged that she saw her mother walking away when the postal worker grabbed her equipment, seemingly not wanting to get involved.
"But the girl turned around and called the cops and told the cops that my mom attacked her from behind. She lied about what happened," Lisbet claimed.
According to authorities, however, Avila was trimming grass when the postal worker requested her to step back due to the debris blowing into her while she was delivering mail. When she requested a second time, tapping Avila's shoulder, Avila allegedly attacked her with a weed-eater.
Avila's family alleged that the police never listened to Avila's account. She was arrested and booked into the Harris County jail for bodily assault with a $100 bail bond.
US President Donald Trump's administration has rolled out tough immigration policies and has promised to conduct a sweeping crackdown on undocumented immigrants, hundreds and thousands of whom are being deported or detained.
Avila's felony charges are in violation of her parole with immigration, which leads to detention. Lisbet had a message for the US President, urging him to ease the pathway for nonviolent immigrants eager for the American dream.
"All I would ask of him is to have a little compassion and a little humanity for the people that are here and trying to do it the right way," she said.
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