A heart-warming story from the Twin Cities:

A vocal and visible Twin Cities advocate for immigrant rights and immigration reform is himself facing deportation — to the surprise of those who have worked with him for years.
Mariano Perez Espinoza, 41, executive director of the Minnesota Immigrant Freedom Network, is in jail awaiting deportation for allegedly being in the country illegally after a previous deportation.

Note that he wasn’t just a regular illegal alien; rather, he’s accused of committing the felony of re-entry after deportation. Why he’s simply being deported is beyond me.

Espinoza, a native of Mexico, has advocated openly on immigration issues for years. …
State Rep. Carlos Mariani, DFL-St. Paul, has known Espinoza for years. He described his friend as a self-taught organizer and inspirational leader.
He said the two worked together on a proposal for the Minnesota Dream Act, which would provide in-state tuition rates for high school students, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
“Mariano was the point person in charge of leading that effort and organizing students,” Mariani said. …
Despite his illegal status, Espinoza hasn’t kept a low profile. He’s been a frequent speaker at rallies and meetings and has been quoted in news stories dealing with immigrant issues. In April 2004, he was featured in a Star Tribune story focusing on his transformation from immigrant to community organizer.
The Minnesota Immigrant Freedom Network’s website notes he was recently recognized by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Minnesota as one of its “25 on the rise.”

I think it’s perfectly defensible at this point to insist that advocates and organizers in the immigration debate disclose their citizenship or immigration status, just like lawmakers have to disclose their finances or writers are supposed to disclose any possible conflicts of interest. I’ll start — I’m a U.S. citizen (I even think I have a copy of my birth certificate!).

The most recent trouble for Espinoza apparently began last July. Several sources say he got into a dispute regarding a rental car at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
A spokeswoman for the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office said an incident at the airport led to a felony warrant for Espinoza’s arrest last month. Hennepin County jail records confirm that he was booked into the jail on Feb. 14. ICE regularly checks jail records in Hennepin and Ramsey counties for people in this country illegally who have been arrested for other alleged crimes. Espinoza’s immigration status apparently was discovered.

Data from ICE shows that there are no Minnesota jurisdictions plugged into the Secure Communities program (which checks the fingerprints of people being booked against immigration databases as well as the FBI’s NCIC), but they managed to find him anyway. Imagine how many more alien felons will be uncovered once all jails are using Secure Communities by 2013, the administration’s target date for full roll-out.