DENVER - Violeta and Sujey Pando walked into an immigration courtroom in downtown Denver on Friday knowing that Sujey was on the verge of being deported.
The illegal immigrant from Mexico had been stopped for a traffic infraction in 2008, and Friday represented the last day of what's turned into a three-year deportation process.
The lesbian couple walked away on Friday with a five-month reprieve, a victory for them made possible, in part, by a decision the day before by the Obama administration to try to prioritize the nearly 300,000 pending deportations in the country today.
On Thursday, the Obama administration announced plans to, in essence, prioritize deportations based upon a variety of criteria. Criminals, for example, might move to the front. Educated parents might move to closer to the end.
Critics, like Colorado's own vocal former Congressman Tom Tancredo, say the whole thing is a misguided mess and it is equivalent to amnesty.
"What you're saying to every single potential illegal immigrant in this country is: 'Just get here. Just get past the border guard. And, by the way, we're going to move them to the side also. Just get here and don't worry about it, you're never going home,'" Tancredo said.
It's undoubtedly a plan that will spark debate in Congress.
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