Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is urging leniency from federal immigration officials on behalf of a New Britain college student who faces deportation to Mexico on the eve of graduating from a downtown Hartford college.
Malloy says he has written the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Citizenship & Immigration Services, asking them to defer enforcement of a deportation order for Mariano Cardoso.
Cardoso has lived in the U.S. since he was 22 months old and his parents brought him here from Mexico illegally, eventually settling in New Britain, the governor said Wednesday.
Cardoso is due to graduate in May with an engineering degree from Capitol Community College in Hartford.
“For all intents and purposes, Mariano is American,” Malloy said. “To send him back to a country he has no recollection of and did not grow up in makes little sense, particularly as he is finishing his degree and looking to contribute to his community and this state.”
Malloy has proposed a bill that would allow students who graduate from a Connecticut high school to pay in-state tuition to state colleges and universities.
