KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WOKI / WVLT) — A federal judge has lifted a stay that kept a Maryville construction worker in the United States, and he has now been deported.
U.S. District Judge Clifton Corker denied Diego Hernandez Garcia’s habeas corpus petition in a May 8 filing, allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to remove him from a Louisiana detention facility. Hernandez Garcia, who was arrested during a December ICE raid at a Hardin Valley construction site, has been deported to El Salvador.
Corker ruled that Hernandez Garcia’s deferred action status—granted in 2022 and delaying a 2016 removal order—does not require due process protections before being revoked because it is discretionary.
Hernandez Garcia’s attorney, Rachel Bonano, confirmed the deportation and criticized the decision, pointing to his ties to the community after living in the U.S. since age 13.
Corker acknowledged those ties and the hardship of removal in his order but said the court must follow legal standards governing immigration enforcement.
Hernandez Garcia had lived in Maryville for more than a decade and had previously been mistakenly deported and returned during earlier proceedings.
