Event for Edy Davila set for Saturday
By: Rachel Silverman
Roughly 10 months ago, 28-year-old Edy Davila was awakened early in the morning by federal immigration agents and escorted to a detention center in Elizabeth.
Six months later, Mr. Davila was shipped home to Guatemala.
On Saturday, community members will hold a fundraiser for Mr. Davila from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Assembly Room of Nassau Presbyterian Church. The event, which will feature food, music, an auction and artwork by Guatemalan weaver Armando Sosa, aims to pay for Mr. Davila’s mounting legal expenses.
Organizers, like local immigration rights activist Maria Juega, also hope the fundraiser will pay for Mr. Davila’s flight back to the United States.
"We’re hopefully getting down to the last stretch," Ms. Juega said in an interview this week.
Since his deportation, a team of former coworkers, community members and legal experts have been working tirelessly to bring Mr. Davila back to his wife, Jay, a U.S. citizen, and their three U.S.-born children.
Because Mr. Davila is married to a U.S. citizen, they argue, he should not have to abide by the 10-year waiting period required by law.
They are also concerned about Mr. Davila’s health, since he suffers from hemophilia. Though Mr. Davila was able to secure a one-year medical supply before his deportation, they fear the reserve may be dwindling dangerously low.
Mr. Davila, a native Guatemalan, crossed the U.S. border illegally in 1993.
Shortly after moving to Princeton, he married Jay and fathered three children Amaris, 8, Edy, 7, and Ariana, 1. He held a job in the catering department of Rocky Hill’s Main Street Café, bought a house in Ewing and never looked back until he was picked up by a squad of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
In the past few months, raids have occurred throughout Mercer County with accelerating frequency. In October 2004, ICE officials swept through a home on Witherspoon Street, arresting nine men. A January raid at McCaffrey’s supermarket at the Princeton Shopping Center resulted in the seizure of a long-time store employee.

