Trump’s former family driver Zoltan Tamas detained by ICE for last 8 months

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Zoltan Tamas often welcomed Donald Trump’s children and campaign staff arrived in South Florida during the 2016 presidential campaign. Tamas as a senior security guard at Trump National Golf Club in the town of Jupiter Tamas was licensed to carry a gun. He also bought a home, paid taxes, and never ran afoul of the law since immigrating legally to the United States from Romania in 2011. But since the last 8 months, Tamas has been locked in a correctional facility 6 hours drive from his family as he fights a protracted legal battle to remain in the United States. He hasn’t once seen his wife, 11-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter during that time.

Tamas has fallen prey to the crackdown on immigration that is at the top of the president’s national agenda. Tamas is a green-card holder and he was arrested by immigration authorities after he applied for US citizenship in 2016 and a background check revealed that he had been convicted in absentia of committing insurance fraud in Romania. His lawyer is appealing an immigration judge’s decision to deport him and asking Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release Tamas while the case winds through the court. But the agency has said he must remain detained because of his crime. Tamas’ lawyer Mario Urizar said that Zoltan wasn’t caught crossing the border and said his client was not a flight risk.

Urizar added, “He was in the country legally, paying taxes and has no criminal record in the United States. Why would you keep him detained? They should use their discretionary power to release him”. Tamas is being held at Wakulla Correctional Institution in Crawfordville, Florida, near Tallahassee. His wife and children are U.S citizens and remain in West Palm Beach, and struggling to survive without the breadwinner of the family. Tamas first started working at a Trump property in the 2006-07 winter season. ICE officials said they couldn’t discuss the immigration court’s ruling, but said that those who have been ordered by a judge to leave the country automatically forfeit their legal residence status, and that ICE is legally required to detain them.