Editor’s note: David Bennion, an immigration attorney in Philadelphia, writes to New America Media about a deportation case that has mobilized immigrant rights advocates and bloggers.

Julio Maldonado found himself on the wrong side of town in northeast Philadelphia in 1996, when he and his cousin were victims of a racially-motivated attack.

Then he found himself on the wrong side of the criminal justice and immigration systems, which perversely punished the victims while letting the aggressors go free. Now he stands on the brink of deportation to a country, Peru, that he left as a toddler.

Julio Maldonado has lived in the United States since the age of three. He became a lawful permanent resident at age eight. His entire immediate family and much of his extended family lives in the United States.

Maldonado applied to become a U.S. citizen but did not complete the process before his incarceration in 1996. Maldonado’s longtime fiancee, Angela Giraldo, has hoped she and Julio can be reunited someday. Julio has acted as a father to Angela’s daughter.

On August 4, 1996, Julio Maldonado and his cousin, Denis Calderon, were attacked by a group of men near Calderon’s home in northeast Philadelphia. Before and during the attack, the assailants, who were white, shouted racial slurs at the two cousins.

However, Maldonado and Calderón were charged in the incident after one of the attackers, Christian Saladino, fell into a coma as a result of the confrontation. After a bench trial, Judge Gregory Smith convicted Maldonado and Calderón of aggravated assault. They submitted a timely appeal within months. A year later, after Christian Saladino passed away, the two men were tried for murder before a jury and acquitted, in part due to expert medical testimony, indicating Maldonado and Calderón were not responsible for Saladino’s physical condition.

Saladino suffered from a rare blood clotting disease and had sustained no bruises on his head or torso that could have caused him to fall into a coma.

In a subsequent hearing, Judge Smith vacated his earlier verdict, which was based on medical evidence that had been presented at the murder trial. However his new decision was appealed on technical grounds and overturned. All subsequent appeals of the criminal charges were unsuccessful.

Julio has been incarcerated since early 2005 based on the immigration consequences of the aggravated assault conviction. The immigration judge ordered him removed in 2005 and all subsequent appeals were denied. In 2006, he was convicted of hindering his own removal from the United States.

Rather than face permanent separation from his U.S.-based family, including his mother, Julio chose to remain incarcerated and pursue his criminal appeals even though he had completed his sentence for aggravated assault long before.

On July 1, 2009, Julio filed a request for a pardon from Governor Edward Rendell based on his actual innocence in the aggravated assault case. Maldonado’s sentence for hindering his own removal has now been served, and he has been relocated this week to York County Prison, prior to his deportation to Peru.

Dave Bennion is an immigration attorney at a nonprofit organization in Philadelphia. He blogs about immigrant rights at Citizen Orange and the Sanctuary.