PORTLAND — A 20-year-old Happy Valley man whose deportation for a felony theft conviction was stopped just short of the border with Mexico has been released after a year in detention and has rejoined his family.
Edson Barrera Gonzalez had pleaded guilty in a bargain that was aimed at eventually reducing the case to a misdemeanor, but the felony conviction was a threshold for deportation proceedings.
He’d been accused last year of giving unauthorized discounts at a Macy’s department store and ringing up false returns to benefit his parents.
The plea bargain called for reducing the count to a misdemeanor once he paid back $1,526, and served 10 days in jail and probation.