BOSTON (WHDH) - Seattle disc jockey, David Ardila, was among the throngs of visitors to Boston who took in the World Cup.
“When he was at the gate at Boston Logan airport, someone called his name and for a second – it’s kinda cute – he thought ‘I got recognized! Am I famous now for music and DJing?’ He literally turned, and it was an officer. An ICE officer,” Jessica Di Zio said, his cousin.
Attorney Todd Pomerleau said Ardila was taken into custody for overstaying his visa, explaining that the 33-year-old came to the U.S. from Venezuela seeking asylum.
“The reason the visa’s overstayed is because they’ve dragged their feet on his asylum application,” Pomerleau said.
The very same day, Pomerleau said Maria Rosales, a 32-year-old who works for a dermatologist in Miami, was in Boston to see a Noah Kahan concert with friends and was also arrested at Logan.
“After she went through TSA, she was waiting near the gate to get on her plane, and she was basically trapped,” Pomerleau said.
Rosales’ attorney said she was arrested on a removal order. He claims she came to the U.S. from Colombia at 4 years old and was protected because she was a child, and has been working to renew her stay.
“They are both in a detention center in Massachusetts for nothing more than applying for an immigration benefit under the law and waiting a decade for an interview or three years for an interview,” Pomerleau said.
Pomerleau has filed paperwork to keep them both in Massachusetts right now. Ardila’s cousin hopes everything can be worked out here, and that he is not deported.
“The reason he came to the US for asylum was because he was persecuted in Venezuela,” Di Zio said. “If he goes back, we don’t know what could happen. Especially for someone so talented, so bright, so kind, so humble like he is.”
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