Salvadoran gangster fights deportation

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Federal immigration officials say it could take months to deport an MS-13 gang member who was acquitted of murder charges this week in Alexandria.

In the meantime, Oscar Garcia-Orellana, 32, will remain in custody at Fairfax County Jail pending a hearing by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) in Arlington, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman said.

Garcia-Orellana faces deportation to El Salvador as part of the federal government's efforts to send illegal aliens back to their home countries.

He was the only defendant to testify in the trial, which resulted in the acquittal Tuesday of another gang member. Two other gang members were found guilty of murdering a pregnant 17-year-old former member.

Attorneys for Garcia-Orellana, who has been in the United States since 1998, argue that his testimony puts him at risk of assassination if he is deported. They said they will fight to get him asylum status so he can remain in the United States.

EOIR spokesman Greg Gagne said administrative judges in the Justice Department hear scores of deportation charges and appeals daily.

Mr. Gagne offered no estimate for how long it will take to remove Garcia-Orellana from the United States if a judge allows deportation.

If the judge rules against deportation, Garcia-Orellana would be a free man.

"Typically, these things tend to be measured in months from beginning to end," Mr. Gagne said.

Immigration authorities deported 91,921 aliens on criminal and noncriminal charges in 1999, said Mike Keegan, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer.