Supreme Court delays deportation of paraplegic boy's stepdad until justice can rule

A last-minute stay was granted late Tuesday afternoon for Yancarlos Mendez until Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan can look at a motion filed overnight Monday.

Married five days ago in a jailhouse wedding, Mendez, 27, was transferred Monday to a federal detention center in Louisiana, the final domestic move before he will be put on a plane for his native Dominican Republic.

The Springdale man overstayed a 90-day non-visa waiver by more than two years, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Late Monday night, attorneys Charleston Wang and Nazly Mamedova completed an emergency application for a stay of removal that says "irreparable harm will befall a 6-year-old paraplegic boy named Ricky Solis." The child, the son of Mendez's wife, Sanda Mendoza, is now legally related to Mendez as his stepfather.

Mendez's attorneys submitted the application to Kagan overnight. She has jurisdiction over the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which this past week overturned its previous stay of Mendez's deportation.

Mendez, an auto mechanic, had financially supported his fiancee and her son and was trained by Cincinnati Children's Hospital staff to care for Ricky's extensive medical needs.

Ricky traveled last week with his mother and the family's ministers to the Morrow County Jail, an hour north of Columbus, for the wedding. He was not allowed in the jail's secure area, where the ceremony took place.

"We have one last chance, one last chance," Mendoza said.

She spoke Monday on the phone with her husband. "I tried to cheer him up and tell him not to be sad," she said. "It is so difficult."

Ricky was injured in a car crash a year ago in Fairfield. Mendez proposed shortly after the incident and lived in Ricky's hospital room with his fiancee for several months until the boy's release.

Mendez was detained and turned over to ICE after he was stopped in November for driving without a license.

ICE officials had no comment Tuesday about the case.