A Mexican Restaurant in the Bronx Prepares for an Asylum Case
New York Times
By Amelia Nierenberg
La Morada, in Mott Haven, has long been a center for activism. As the son of the owners seeks political asylum, the community has rallied to help.
On Sunday afternoon, La Morada, a family-owned Oaxacan restaurant in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx, hummed with activity. Children ate tortillas, with fingers stained green and purple from acrylic paint, as their parents strategized over steaming mugs of coffee. They had come to make signs in support of the owners’ son, Marco Saavedra, 29, who will appear Thursday morning in federal immigration court in Manhattan to petition for political asylum. Mr. Saavedra first came to the United States from Mexico with his parents, who are undocumented, at age 3.
In 2012, he turned himself in to border agents in Florida, and was detained, so he could publicize conditions from within a detention center. That effort put him in removal proceedings and resulted in the release of 70 immigrants. It was the subject of a documentary, “The Infiltrators,” which won two awards at the Sundance Film Festival this year.
