CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Immigration rights activists - along with the family and friends of a Northwest Side man who's facing deportation - all rallied in the Loop this afternoon.
The supporters of Francisco Panuco,43 say it came as a shock on May 31 at 6 a.m. when Panuco was taken into custody by agents from ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
He had lived in the U.S. for 18 years. Undocumented.
His sister Gabriela told WBBM through an interpreter, that he came here from Mexico, looking for a better life - and he found one in Chicago.
"I think if it's really a sanctuary city, they shouldn't deport him," she said. "My brother Francisco Panuco is an exemplary father with a 7-year-old daughter who lived with him before ICE separated him from his daughter."
Panuco's supporters acknowledge his past DUI arrests, but they say he is not a violent criminal.
They are asking Immigration and Customs Enforcement to abide by a recent Supreme Court ruling that cleared the way for the Biden Administration to set priorities on which undocumented immigrants would be deported - and which could stay.
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