City College Student Steve Li, Detained by ICE, Awaits Final Dispensation

KQED’s Shuka Kalantari just got back from the protest outside Barbara Boxer’s office in support of Shing Ma “Steve” Li. Li is a 20-year-old nursing student at City College of San Francisco and is currently being held in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Arizona for being in the country illegally. Li’s lawyer, Sin Yen Ling, issued a statement Friday saying that ICE planned to deport Li to Peru on Monday. Li himself also told the Chronicle that his lawyer told him the same thing. Details on today’s protest, from Shuka Kalantari:

• Sang Chi, Li’s Asian American History instructor, said he talks to Li every couple of days. Chi said that Li told him he’s been on a hunger strike for several days.
• Roughly three dozen protesters attended, mostly students and some CCSF faculty.
• A fellow student and friend, Marilyn Luu, is in contact with Li. She found out about his detention from Li’s sister after he didn’t respond to Facebook messages. Luu then started a Facebook page in support of Li’s case.
• Sin Yen Ling, Li’s lawyer, said that she found out from a federal source, whom Ling wouldn’t name, that ICE would make a decision on Li’s tentative deportation today.

Li has been detained by ICE for more than 50 days; his parents, who have been in the country illegally since 2003, were also arrested but are now being monitored at home through ankle bracelets. His parents were born in China, moved to Peru, then came to the U.S. Li was born in Peru.

Supporters are calling on Boxer, Nancy Pelosi, and Dianne Feinstein to legislatively intervene in the case.

On Tuesday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors adopted a unanimous resolution “denouncing Li’s deportation and calling for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to postpone his deportation,” says the Chronicle. “They also urged Congress to pass the DREAM Act, which…would grant undocumented immigrant children citizenship if they entered the U.S. before age 15 and are attending a two- or four-year college.”