Biography
Héctor Marroquín was a Mexican-born activist whose decade-long fight against deportation became a major political-asylum and civil-liberties cause championed by the U.S. left. Born in Matamoros, Mexico, he came to the United States in 1974 and became active in the antideportation and trade-union movements and a member of the Young Socialist Alliance and the Socialist Workers Party. He said he had fled political persecution in Mexico — where he was wanted in connection with the student and leftist movements — and feared torture or death if he were returned.
In September 1977, returning from a visit to Mexico, Marroquín was detained by the Immigration and Naturalization Service at Eagle Pass, Texas and charged with entering the country illegally; he applied for political asylum. A Héctor Marroquín Defense Committee organized national support, and his testimony featured in the SWP's landmark Socialist Workers Party v. Attorney General lawsuit over FBI and government surveillance of the left. After roughly eleven years of government efforts to deport him for his political activity, Marroquín ultimately won the right to remain in the United States.
