CHICAGO -- An undocumented student whose fight to stay in the country has ignited a movement on his behalf says he has been allowed to stay in the United States for one more year.
The apparent reprieve -- which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would not immediately confirm -- came less than a week before Rigo Padilla, 21, was supposed to leave Dec. 16 for his native Mexico, where he hasn't been since he was 6.
"It's official," Padilla said Thursday morning after his lawyer met with immigration officials in Chicago. He smiled ear-to-ear as he held up a letter from ICE confirming his application for a one-year stay was granted.
"I promise that I'm going to work hard and go to school and graduate from college," he said. "I hope my case can be an example" of the thousands of other undocumented immigrants hoping to stay in the country long enough to potentially win permanent legal status under immigration reform.
Padilla said he was riding the subway when his attorney called with the good news.
"From day one, I remained hopeful," he said, adding that he hadn't yet purchased a plane ticket to Mexico.
When friends asked about his plans to settle in the country he hadn't seen since he was six, "my answer was always 'My struggle is to stay.' I wanted to stay."
Padilla, in the midst of finals week at the University of Illinois Chicago, said he was relieved he can stay but still dealing with stress.
"I have two more papers to turn in," he said. "My teachers are going to kill me if I don't."
Padilla's attorney, Kalman Resnick, said "hopefully, this is an initial step toward a major movement to stop the deportation of undocumented students in the U.S."
Padilla's immigration status was discovered when he was arrested for drinking and driving earlier this year. The decision to stay the deportation of came during a meeting with ICE officials in Chicago Thursday.
The news brought cheers inside the Chicago offices of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, where activists who organized rallies and an Internet campaign on Padilla's behalf awaited word of the meeting with ICE.
"This is wonderful," said Joshua Hoyt, executive director for the ICIRR. "Chicago came together in support of Rigo Padilla and the Obama administration heard (the president's) home town."
"Now let's get solutions for the whole nation and not do this on a case-by-case basis," Hoyt added, referring to promises by Obama that federal immigration reforms are a high priority.
While Padilla's plight has been emblematic of the frustrations felt by immigrant advocates hoping to win legalization for millions in the country illegally, his pardon is likely to stir resentment from groups pushing for more aggressive immigration enforcement.
As part of a three-legged platform for immigration reform pushed by the Obama administration, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano promised a hard line against illegal immigration.
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