Venezuelan sentenced for drugs faces deportaton

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — An immigration lawyer and a rights group say a Venezuelan man who is HIV positive and is in the U.S. legally was arrested in Portland in a pre-dawn raid because of a meth-possession conviction.

They fear he will be deported to his home country, which is experiencing economic collapse with medication scarce, saying it would be tantamount to a death sentence.

N. David Shamloo, attorney for Luis Garcia, said Monday that instead of being locked up in a federal immigration detention center in Tacoma, Washington, Garcia could have have been allowed to return home and put on electronic monitoring pending his hearing before a federal immigration court.

Shamloo says Garcia has a job and is a legal permanent resident of the United States.