Community Rallies Around Woman Who Fears Abuse if Deported

A Salvadoran women facing deportation says she fears returning to a country where police did nothing after she was raped several times, according to published reports.

The woman, who has been public about her identity and claims, was put into deportation proceedings after she missed her immigration hearing, according to KTVU in San Francisco.

Blanca Medina’s attorney, Matthew Muller, said that the Hayward resident had an understandable reason for missing her immigration hearing.

"To deal with that level of trauma you just push it out of your head," Muller was quoted as saying in the KTVU story. "Going to court and trying to recall these events is not something you can do."

A petition was created for her on the popular website Change.org and has received more than 100,000 signatures.

More On This...

Muller said that her client did not apply for political asylum because she was too traumatized to go through the process in a timely fashion.

Immigration agents were quoted in KTVU as saying: “Medina is considered an immigration fugitive who has failed to comply with final orders of removal by the nation's immigration courts.”

They did concede to giving Medina a hearing where she could make her case about why she fears returning to El Salvador.

KTVU described Medina as bewildered and worried about what a return to El Salvador would mean to her safety and that of her daughter, who is four years old.

Meanwhile, her situation has become a cause célèbre in San Francisco’s immigrant community. The community was planning rallies in support of Medina by immigration offices.