Jasmine Lima-Marin, center, stands next to supporters and her attorney, Hans Meyer, right, during a news conference on May 19, 2017, in Denver. Lima-Marin’s husband, who came to the United States from Cuba as a baby during the Mariel boat lift in 1980, faces deportation. She says she’s hopeful that he won’t be deported but adds that she and the couple’s two children would follow him there if he’s deported. (AP Photo/ P. Solomon Banda) 
Jasmine Lima-Marin stands at a podium as she addresses the media during a news conference on Friday, May 19, 2017, in Denver. Lima-Marin’s husband, who came to the United States from Cuba as a baby during the Mariel boat lift in 1980, faces deportation. She says she’s hopeful that he won’t be deported but adds that she and the couple’s two children would follow him there if he is. (AP Photo/ P. Solomon Banda) 
FILE – In this May 7, 2014, file photo, Rene Lima-Marin sits for an interview with The Associated Press about the circumstances of his sentencing and incarceration in a meeting room inside Kit Carson Correctional Center, a privately operated prison in Burlington, Colo. Lima-Marin, who was sent back to prison after being mistakenly released 90 years early, says it was cruel and unusual punishment to put him back behind bars after he reformed his life. A judge is considering on Wednesday, Dec. 21, whether to free Lima-Marin who is arguing that it would be unfair to keep him behind bars after he started a family and held a steady job after his accidental release in 2008. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File) 
In this undated photo provided by the the Lima-Marin Family, Rene Lima-Marin jokes around with children Justus, 7, and Josiah, 4, in Aurora, Colo. Rene Lima-Marin was sentenced in 2000 for a conviction in a robbery, kidnapping and burglary after robbing two Aurora video stores when Marin was 18. Marin was to stay in prison the rest of his life and serve 98 years. He was released after just 8 years due to a clerical error, living a crime-free life for six years before being sent back after authorities discovered their mistake. (AP Photo/Lima-Marin Family) 
In this May 7, 2014 photo, Jasmine Lima-Marin talks during an interview with The Associated Press about her incarcerated husband Rene Lima Marin, at their home in Aurora, Colo. Rene Lima-Marin was sentenced in 2000 for a conviction in a robbery, kidnapping and burglary after robbing two Aurora video stores when Marin was 18. Marin was to stay in prison the rest of his life and serve 98 years. He was released after just 8 years due to a clerical error, living a crime-free life for six years before being sent back after authorities discovered their mistake. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
AURORA | Lawyers for Rene Lima-Marin say they have won a stay of the Aurora man’s deportation, possibly paving the way for the convicted robber to return home after a flurry of bizarre government missteps dating back almost a decade.
In a statement Tuesday, lawyers from the Meyer Law Office, a high-profile Denver immigration law firm that took Lima-Marin’s case last spring after a judge ordered him released from prison, said a judge reopened the case last month, effectively pausing his deportation.
“Thankfully, justice prevailed in the most critical step of Rene’s case, with the immigration court granting our motion to reopen and cancel his prior deportation,” Lima-Marin’s lawyer, Hans Meyer, said in the statement.
Lima-Marin will likely remain behind bars at an Aurora immigration detention facility as a judge reconsiders the case and could still be deported.
A court hearing in the case is set for Tuesday afternoon, said Julie Gonzales, policy director of the Meyer Law Firm. The hearing is closed to the press, she said, and a judge will likely take several months to rule on Lima-Marin’s future.
Gonzales said the process to overturn the deportation could take 2-3 months.
Earlier this year Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, pardoned Lima-Marin for his 2000 robbery conviction, the latest twist in the 19-year-saga of the 38-year-old convicted armed robber. He came to the U.S. as a toddler as part of the 1980 Mariel boat lift from Cuba and had legal residency until it was revoked following his 2000 criminal conviction. Lima-Marin was sentenced to 98 years in prison for the robbery. But he was mistakenly paroled from Colorado state prison in 2008.
Lima-Marin married, had a child and got a steady job installing glass before state authorities realized their mistake in 2014 and sent him back for the remainder of his 98-year prison sentence.
A Colorado judge this spring ordered Lima-Marin released from state prison, saying it would be “draconian” to keep him incarcerated. But before he could return to his family, immigration authorities picked him up, citing a still-active deportation order from 2000. His lawyers said a pardon was his only chance to stave off deportation.
Lima-Marin’s case has become a bipartisan cause célèbre in Colorado, as 98 members of the state Assembly, Democrats and Republicans, called on Hickenlooper to grant him clemency. Though the legal roots of Lima-Marin’s deportation order stretch back to actions of Barack Obama’s administration, his detention comes as President Donald Trump’s administration has moved aggressively to speed up deportations, sometimes sparking clashes with local officials.
Lima-Marin’s family and attorneys have created a fundraising mechanism with CrowdJustice.com at www.crowdjustice.com/case/keeprenehome/ to pay for his legal battle.
BRAUCHLER: Lima-Marin pardon violated Colorado law and victim sensibilities
PERRY: If the Rene Lima-Marin blunder was a test, Colorado and America failed