Last week, days before he was to leave, federal officials offered to let Perozin stay another year. That abrupt change came after the Globe asked about his case. It is not clear what will happen when the year is up.
The starkly different treatment of two men with families and ties to the community underscores the seemingly random decisions meted out by immigration officials seven months after the Obama administration encouraged agents to shift their focus away from such cases.
John Morton, director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, issued a memo last June urging immigration agents and lawyers to focus first on deporting criminals and other violators. After complaints that the terms were not being implemented, officials launched a nationwide training program in November that has so far trained all prosecutors and managers.
Many criticized the memo, including the federal immigration agents union, but Morton said the agency has to set priorities for enforcement resources, given that the number of illegal immigrants exceeds 11 million nationwide. The government deports less than 4 percent of illegal immigrants each year.
Immigration lawyers say they have noticed improvements since the training started, but because the federal government does not allow public access to immigration court files, it is impossible to know how broadly new guidelines are being implemented.
Immigrants can face deportation hearings without legal representation, because they are not entitled to court-appointed lawyers in federal immigration court. But even those with lawyers, like Perozin and Quintanilla, can face a tough battle there.
One morning just before Thanksgiving, Quintanilla sat ramrod-straight in Boston’s immigration court as Judge Leonard I. Shapiro read his ruling.
Quintanilla, 43, had asked the judge to cancel his deportation and clear the way for him to get a green card. Immigration law allows judges to grant exceptions to immigrants living in the country for at least 10 years, so long as they meet other criteria, such as proving that their American children would suffer extreme harm if they were deported.
