Deportation hearing for Uriel Alberto scheduled for tomorrow

Uriel Alberto

Winston-Salem resident Uriel Alberto, who came to the United States from southern Mexico at the age of 7, faces a deportation hearing in Charlotte tomorrow morning.

Alberto gained widespread attention in February by disrupting an NC House subcommittee hearing on immigration and declaring that he was “undocumented, unafraid and unashamed,” and getting arrested for civil disobedience along with two other undocumented young people.

Alberto said federal officials have refused his request for deferred prosecution. He doesn’t know how, if at all, President Obama’s executive order halting deportation of undocumented young people might affect his case. Alberto said he was arrested for drinking under-age three months before his 21st birthday. Obama’s executive order excludes people with “certain serious misdemeanors,” and it’s not clear what that means.

“I hope that I fall in the category that he’s asking for,” Alberto said. “If not, we’ll take the longer, harder route.

“They’re going to have to carry me out on a bus or a plane,” he added, “because I’m going to fight it all the way.”