OGC Helps MIT Employee at Risk of Deportation

MIT custodian Francisco Rodriguez was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on July 13, 2017 and is at risk of being deported back to El Salvador.

Mr. Rodriguez, who is legally authorized to work in the U.S., has been an exemplary MIT employee for 5 years.  More than 1,000 members of the MIT Community signed a petition on Mr. Rodriguez’s behalf.  While MIT lawyers cannot personally represent Mr. Rodriguez, the Office of General Counsel has assisted in securing the law firm Goodwin Procter to take on Mr. Rodriguez’s case pro bono. On July 13, 2017 Goodwin filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court, District of Massachusetts on Mr. Rodriguez’s behalf against the federal government seeking an order to release him from custody and stop the deportation.

To learn more about MIT’s efforts to help Mr. Rodriguez stay with his family in the U.S., MIT News spoke with Vice President and General Counsel Mark DiVincenzo, who has led the Institute’s response, and Israel Ruiz, executive vice president and treasurer, who oversees the Institute’s facilities and human resources department.  The article can be found here.  In December 2017, Mr. Rodriguez was released from detention.  The MIT News article detailing his release can be found here.