Show OCR
DeportationeteqOpposed foriyloMother of 5ofthdcA Ventura Superior Court !a judge asked immigration !n authorities Fridav to let a -Mexican mother stay in the U.S., where two of her five d children were bom, despite her a conviction on a heroin charge. r'Maria Arzabal, 27, wife of a e( major heroin dealer in Oxnard, !; pleaded guilty in May to possessing heroin for sale* She faces possible deportation ^ because of the conviction.o“Her possession of heroin . . . f arose out of the illegal actions \ of her husband and not as a ( result of any plan or scheme on her part,” declared defense lawyer Joe Lax, urging Judge j Ben F. Ruffner to recommend against deportation.Mrs. Arzabal’s husband. Bias, was committed to a state diagnostic center last month for a 90-day study before he is ' sentenced as a heroin dealer. i(A local probation officer has urged that Arzabal get the maximum sentence, up to life in prison.) 'Mrs. Arzabal’s five children. | as well as her husband’s three ■ other children by a prior marriaze, are living on welfare while he is behind bars. The . mother was granted probation,, to care for the children, after . confessing there was heroin for * sale in the home she shared , with Arzabal. j“Deportation w'ould work a grave hardship on Maria Guadalupe and her children,” Lax told Judge Ruffner.The judge’s recommendation I against deportation, with copies to be sent to immigration! authorities and the U.S. attorney’s office, is not binding | on federal officials, lawyers r emphasized.
Your clip comment has been saved and pending for approval before it displayed.