Only 7 percent of deportation cases win reprieve

At the time, unscrupulous immigration attorneys in California attempted to resolve pending orders of deportation for clients with Hispanic names representing that they were eligible for asylum because they were from Central America.

Young said he is attempting to reopen the case, which conceivably could be resolved under prosecutorial discretion. The Avelar sisters have clean records, are employed and are high school graduates. The three sisters have six children among them. They were minors when their visas expired. 

However, their case differs from Morales' because a final order for the Avelar family's deportation was ordered in 1997.

Young remains optimistic that the women will be given the benefit of the doubt because they were brought to the United States as children and had no control over their circumstances. Local ICE officials "have been nothing but nice, respectful and courteous" as he has worked on the sisters' case, he said.

The women's case was helped by Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff contacting Morton by email and public attention.

"Ultimately it worked, and very few of these work," Young said of the deferment.

E-mail: marjorie@desnews.com