Battered wife faces deportation to El Salvador

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Source: San Francisco Chronicle

(10-25) 17:05 PDT MOUNTAIN VIEW -- A Mountain View woman who fled a violent husband and entered the United States illegally in 1995 faces imminent deportation to El Salvador, where her husband has been looking for her, her lawyer said Monday.

Irma Medrano, 44, is being held by immigration authorities at a jail in Yuba City and could be deported as soon as Tuesday, said attorney Aubra Fletcher. She said the government has refused to delay Medrano's case to let her apply for political asylum and has disputed her claim that her life would be in danger in El Salvador.

Medrano's relatives in San Salvador have reported that her husband has come to look for her after he learned that she was on the verge of being deported, Fletcher said. She said police protection has improved little since the early 1990s, when Medrano's husband tried to strangle her with a belt and a police officer allegedly told her, "We can't do anything because it's your husband."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/25/BADQ1G1PC4.DTL

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1. Asylum?