Dozens of demonstrators turned out Thursday to support a Massachusetts Institute of Technology custodian who is being deported.
Francisco Rodriguez was nervous. He was minutes away from meeting with agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and he had no idea what to expect.
"I have a lot of worry. Stress at the same time, but I like I said, I wish to have a good answer," he said. "I'm waiting for a good answer, a positive answers, that is the only thing I need."
Rodriguez moved to the United States illegally from El Salvador about a decade ago. According to an ICE spokesman, a federal judge issued a final order of removal against Rodriguez in 2009. ICE says Rodriguez was also issued four stays to allow him time to pursue his legal options.
"I'm not a criminal, I am a father," Rodriguez said. "My children, my family, I follow with the rules. The only mistake that I made was [I] came the way that I came."
He adds he twice applied for asylum, and was twice denied.
Still, as he waited to go inside to meet with ICE agents, he was optimistic, but worried.
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"I'm not 100 percent prepared because when you go inside, you never know," he said.
As dozens of supporters waited outside, Rodriguez went in with his lawyer.
About an hour later, his lawyer emerged, telling the crowd Rodriguez had been detained.
"We are reeling from this. I'm in shock right now, we are doing everything we can right now," Matt Cameron, Rodriguez's attorney, said. "This obviously creates a sense of urgency we weren't expecting."
Cameron said his team was working on filing am emergency order in federal court.
"At this moment, she feels really tear apart of her heart, because her son was unjustly taken," Rodriguez's mother said through a translator.
