Federal officials won’t halt deportation of Iowa City pastor

IOWA CITY - The federal government denied a request Monday to halt the deportation of an Iowa City pastor.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement turned down a stay of removal for Max Villatoro, 41, said his attorney, Dan Vondra, of Iowa City.

The Honduras native is expected to be deported Tuesday.

'We can still ask for an order of supervision,” Vondra said Monday. This would allow Villatoro, now being housed at an ICE facility in Louisiana, to come back to Iowa City temporarily before traveling to Honduras. But these requests are seldom granted, Vondra said.

'Now's the time for the family and the community to decide what they want to do,” he said.

Villatoro was arrested March 3 as part of a national sweep of more than 2,000 unauthorized immigrants convicted of crimes.

He was convicted in 1999 of drunken driving and tampering with records. Since then, he's gotten married, fathered four children and become a Mennonite pastor with a Spanish-speaking congregation in Iowa City. More than 40,000 people nationwide have signed a petition trying to stop his deportation.

Gloria Villatoro, Max's wife, posted a video plea Sunday night.

'I need my husband back, my kids need their dad,” she said on the video, surrounded by Anthony, 15, Edna, 13, Angela, 10, and Aileen, 7.

'I'm so scared, I don't know what I'm going to be doing without him. I'm scared for his life too, because if he's taken to - if he's sent to Honduras, he's in fear for his life,” Gloria Villatoro said.

Max Villatoro, who left Honduras in 1995, has no support network there and would be a target for kidnapping by criminals seeking ransom, Vondra said. Often deportees arrive in their native country with just a 40-pound suitcase.

Villatoro was convicted in 1999 in Johnson County of drunken driving and in Muscatine County of tampering with records for using a false ID to get a driver's license. Villatoro was sentenced to two years' probation for the records charge, an aggravated misdemeanor. The drunken driving charge is no longer listed on Iowa Courts Online, but is in FBI reports included in the deportation file, Vondra said.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services granted Villatoro a work permit in 2005 or 2006, while his case was pending, Vondra said.

Max and Gloria Villatoro lived in Muscatine until 2009 when they moved their family to Iowa City to start a Spanish-speaking congregation. Their children are U.S. citizens.

The federal government notified Villatoro in 2013 that he would be deported, a decision the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed in July.

A stay of removal would have allowed Villatoro to stay in the United States temporarily. When Anthony Villatoro turns 21, he could apply for legal permanent residency for his father, provided Gloria Villatoro has her legal permanent status by that time.

Gloria Villatoro, a Mexico native living legally in the United States under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, would not want to travel to Honduras because she might have trouble getting back, Vondra said.