This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
An undocumented immigrant who said he contracted a severe infection because of a broken toilet in his Utah County jail cell has been deported to Guatemala, where his family has said he won't survive the illness.
Angel Rosa, 55, is believed to have lived in Utah for 18 years, fathering four children who are U.S. citizens and another who has a green card, according to his daughter Lorena Rosa, an 18-year-old Cache High school senior. She received word of her father's deportation while she was in class Wednesday morning.
"At this moment, I don't know what to say," she said. "I'm so shocked, honestly."
Angel Rosa was arrested last month for violating the terms of his supervised release. He was sentenced to time served and was remanded to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody for removal.
Rosa was deported Wednesday, within a week of his appearance in U.S. District Court.
Hartford, Conn.-based paralegal Mark Reid said that he'd expected Rosa to remain in custody while a civil rights complaint was reviewed. That complaint was "ignored," Reid said.
Rosa is staying with another deportee in Guatemala, Reid said.
"He can't fend for himself," Reid said. "He doesn't have family there. There is no one there."
Rosa had said he contracted Fournier gangrene of the scrotum in late 2014 after living in squalor because of a broken toilet at Utah County jail, where he was held in ICE custody for removal proceedings after pleading guilty to illegal re-entry in 2013.
Utah County Corrections Bureau commander Darin Durfey countered that Rosa is believed to have purposely clogged the toilet, in order to be moved to a quieter cell, and that his deputies would have noticed if the toilet was long out of order.
Rosa was sent home on supervised release after surgery for the infection and a three-week hospital stay in December 2014. He also has high blood pressure and diabetes, according to medical records, and his infection has recurred multiple times. His doctor, Providence Family Medicine's James Mathews, wrote that "he should remain where his family and medical cares are available."
Lorena Rosa previously said that while her father had recovered, "even here, taking him to the hospital just barely gives us hope."
With the help of Reid, paralegal Vanessa Juarez and Hartford attorney Thomas Rome, Rosa tried to reopen his appeal of his removal order. The Board of Immigration Appeals wrote in November 2015 that the motion was filed too late in the process and that Rosa's lone remedy was to petition the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to exercise its prosecutorial discretion.
The DHS swiftly declined, Reid said.
ICE said in a statement to The Tribune last week that Rosa was an "enforcement priority" due to his U.S. criminal history, which includes pleading guilty to abuse of his son, in 2000. He was deported for the first time a year later.
Reid said Rosa's representatives plan to file a lawsuit that will name DHS, ICE and the Utah County Jail.
Twitter: @matthew_piper