A judge in Tucson ordered the deportation of Alejandra Pablos, a well-known immigration and reproductive rights activist, at a hearing Tuesday.
Immigration Judge Thomas Michael O'Leary denied a request for asylum from Pablos, 33, and ordered her removed from the United States during a hearing in downtown Tucson. Pablos said she plans to appeal the decision.
Pablos feared she would be targeted for persecution in Mexico, where abortion is largely illegal and activists she knows have received death threats.
"If I see injustices, I'm going to speak out against them," she testified at the hearing Tuesday.
She testified she was born in Nogales, Sonora, but was brought to the United States as a baby. She was convicted of DUI twice in Arizona, where she grew up and became a legal permanent resident.
Her case is known across the country, particularly after she was arrested in January during a protest at a Department of Homeland Security building in Virginia.
"It was a peaceful protest," she told O'Leary. "I was leading chants and I was the only one arrested."
Pablos was detained in Eloy for 43 days and an online petition for her release was signed by nearly 24,500 people.
Misdemeanor charges of trespassing and obstruction of justice were dismissed, but they put her tenuous immigration status in question and led to Tuesday's hearing.
