A South Florida congresswoman is going to bat for a U.S. military war veteran from her district who is in a Miami lockup on a passport fraud charge and fears deportation to his mother’s native Bahamas.
Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Democrat from the 17th District, wrote Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano on Thursday asking immigration authorities not to deport Navy Reserves Petty Officer 2nd Class Elisha Dawkins, 26.
The man went to elementary and high school and played sports in her district before joining the Army and subsequently the Navy.
“Mr. Dawkins grew up in Miami, Mr. Dawkins went to school in Miami, and Mr. Dawkins served his nation honorably before returning back to Miami,” she wrote. “This is a man we should be celebrating.”
Federal prosecutors indicted and then put out an arrest warrant on Dawkins earlier this year while he was working as one of Guantánamo’s most prolific public affairs photographers -- capturing intimate images of the captives in the prison camps, distinguished visitors and fellow soldiers.
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