Deportation cases halted, but illegal immigrants lives remain on hold
By Jeremy Redmon
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
5:39 a.m. Monday, May 7, 2012
Dalton -- Pedro “Peter” Morales remembers the party his family and friends threw last summer after he was freed from a detention center and told he would not be deported to Mexico.
They presented the 19-year-old with a chocolate cake that said
“Welcome Back, Pedro.” His dad grilled chicken and steaks. Morales --
who was illegally brought to the U.S. by his parents when he was 7 --
was relieved to be back home in North Georgia. But those happy feelings
have given way to anxiety. He still does not have legal status in the
U.S. And the government won’t permit him to work legally here.
His situation stems from the federal government’s efforts to shrink a
massive backlog in the nation’s immigration courts, totaling 306,010
cases as of last month. The government is shifting more of its focus
toward deporting violent criminals, fugitives from immigration
authorities, recent border crossers and people who have re-entered the
country illegally.
Morales’ deportation case is among 2,722 the government has closed as
part of this effort so far, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
figures show. Of those, 41 were from Atlanta’s immigration court,
according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access
Clearinghouse -- a research organization that monitors the federal
government.
Charles Kuck, Morales’ immigration attorney, said his firm has about
20 other clients in the same predicament as Morales. He predicted there
are many more caught in similar circumstances nationwide.
“It’s quite clear that there was not a lot of thought given to what
happens to these people when we exercise our discretion of ‘Throw them
back in the ocean,’ ” said Kuck, who teaches immigration law at the
University of Georgia and is past president of the American Immigration
Lawyers Association. “It’s disappointing there wasn’t a better plan,
frankly.”
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration
Studies, has a different view. He said halting illegal immigrants’
deportation cases and then permitting them to work here could send the
message that it is OK to enter the country illegally and stay here
without legal status.
“It is like: ‘Hey, you know, now I’m legal. It’s great. I’m glad ICE
arrested me,” said Krikorian, whose Washington-based organization
advocates for tighter immigration controls. “Giving work authorization
really is much more problematic.”
Federal officials said they are constrained by law concerning when
they may grant work permits. They said some people who have had their
deportation cases closed since last year have received work permits, but
they could not immediately say how many.
They also pointed out that the Obama administration has been pushing
Congress to pass the Dream Act. That measure -- which failed in Congress
in 2010 -- would give illegal immigrants a path to legal status if they
came here as children, graduated from high school and attended college
or served in the military.
Meanwhile, ICE officials said they are moving as quickly as they can
to review the cases pending in the nation’s immigration courts. They
said they are trying to “alleviate the burden posed on already
overwhelmed immigration courts” and have identified about 16,500 cases
that meet their criteria for being closed. Closing cases through this
process, according to ICE, allows the agency “to more quickly remove
those individuals who pose the biggest threat to community security and
who have most flagrantly abused our immigration system.”
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano ignited controversy in
August -- the same month Morales was freed -- when she announced the
case-by-case review. The government’s actions come as Georgia and
several other states are seeking to crack down on illegal immigration
through their own new laws. Among other things, those statutes seek to
block illegal immigrants from taking jobs from U.S. citizens and getting
public benefits they are not entitled to. Parts of those laws are tied
up in federal court amid legal challenges.
State Rep. Matt Ramsey, who authored Georgia’s illegal immigration
law, said it makes sense for the government to prioritize deporting
criminal illegal immigrants. But the government wouldn’t have such a
massive court backlog, he said, if it spent more resources keeping
illegal immigrants out of the country.
“They are in a position of having to do this because they have
fundamentally failed over a period of decades to stem the tide
effectively,” the Peachtree City Republican said, “and they are still
not adequately putting the resources behind it to address the problem.”
President Barack Obama's supporters point out that his administration
has deported a record number of illegal immigrants and other
noncitizens. Last fiscal year, that number was 396,906, the largest
number removed in the history of ICE.
Morales feels strongly about the government’s decision to halt
deportation cases like his. A graduate of Whitfield Career Academy, he
considers himself mostly American. His high school friends nicknamed him
Peter. He sometimes speaks to his parents in English because he doesn’t
know which Spanish words to use.
“I was raised here,” said Morales, a quiet, polite man who speaks in a
somber tone. “I wouldn’t know what to do in Mexico if I go back.”
After his case was closed last year, Morales applied to the
government through a process that could lead to a work permit, but his
application was denied in March, his attorney said. Morales wants to get
a full-time job -- with health insurance benefits -- to pay for tuition
at Georgia Northwestern Technical College. He wants to study auto
mechanics there and open his own car repair shop. He said he can’t
support himself without full-time work, so he lives with his parents and
two U.S.-born siblings.
Morales talked about his case this month at his parent’s home in a
trailer park just outside Dalton. He said his parents brought him to the
United States in 1999, fleeing poverty and crime in Mexico City.
Morales was able to keep his legal status secret until he was arrested
on Father’s Day for driving without a license. Local authorities
determined that he was in the country illegally and turned him over to
ICE, which sent him to a detention center 145 miles south of Atlanta in
Stewart County. He said he spent many weeks there, depressed and worried
about his future.
Morales was freed after his attorney cited the government’s new
guidelines for “prosecutorial discretion” in court. Morales said he is
glad to be free but is nervous about drawing the attention of
immigration authorities again since they have the authority to reopen
his deportation case. He said he rarely leaves home. When he does,
friends drive. He mostly stays busy playing video games and working out
at a local gym, though he can’t shake his restlessness.
“I want to be a good citizen and make a living,” he said. “It’s kind of frustrating right now.”
By the numbers
Seeking to shrink a massive backlog in the nation’s immigration
courts, federal officials have begun an extensive case-by-case review of
the 306,010 matters pending in the courts to see whether they should be
closed because they don’t meet the government’s top priorities for
enforcement. The federal government is shifting more of its focus toward
deporting violent criminals, recent border crossers, people who have
re-entered the country illegally and fugitives from immigration
authorities.
As of April 16, the government has reviewed 219,554 cases and
determined that about 16,500 of them meet its criteria for being closed.
Of those, 2,722 have been closed. They include:
2,055 who have had a “very long-term presence” in the U.S., have an
immediate relative who is a U.S. citizen, have established “compelling
ties and made compelling contributions” to the U.S.
182 who came to the U.S. under the age of 16, have been in the U.S.
for more than five years, have completed high school or its equivalent
and are now pursuing or have completed higher education in the U.S.
175 children who have been in the U.S. for more than five years and
are either enrolled in school or have completed high school or its
equivalent
103 who are a “very low enforcement priority”
100 who suffer from serious mental or physical conditions that would require “significant medical or detention resources”
60 victims of domestic violence, human trafficking or other serious crimes in the U.S.
23 who are older than 65 and have been in the U.S. for more than 10 years
16 who have been lawful permanent residents of the U.S. for 10 years
or more and have a single, minor conviction for a nonviolent offense;
8 who are members of the U.S. military, honorably discharged U.S.
military veterans or spouses or children of U.S. military veterans
Sources: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review
Find this article at:
http://www.ajc.com/news/deportation-cases-halted-but-1432683.html
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Supporters rally against deportation for detained Occupy Oakland
By Matt O'Brien
Oakland Tribune
11/16/2011
OAKLAND -- Alameda County officials said Wednesday they have no authority to stop immigration agents from detaining and deporting an Occupy Oakland protester who was arrested while meditating outside City Hall.
The District Attorney's office dropped misdemeanor charges against 36-year-old activist Pancho Ramos Stierle for loitering and refusing to disperse from Frank H. Ogawa Plaza as riot police were clearing out the Occupy encampment there on Monday.
But while the criminal charges were dropped on Wednesday afternoon, a federal immigration hold on Ramos Stierle remains in effect and friends fear he could be deported to Mexico.
"I don't have the authority to go against the federal government," said Alameda County Superior Court Commissioner Karen Rodrigue, speaking to dozens of Ramos Stierle's supporters who came to his arraignment in a downtown courthouse.
The peace activist was among those arrested as riot police cleared the Occupy encampment in a predawn raid Monday.
He had been meditating on the plaza for more than three hours as police officers surrounded the camp and most other protesters fled.
After he was booked in a county jail, a federal fingerprints database flagged him as a deportable immigrant from Mexico. Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sent a note to jailers asking him to be held.
The activist's lawyers argued on Wednesday that the note -- called an immigration detainer -- is
merely a request for local authorities to keep him detained, not a demand, and that the county has the ability to reject it.
"Our position is that they don't have to honor the hold. That's clear as day," said lawyer Francisco Ugarte. "The federal government has said the hold is a request."
The sheriff's department and district attorney's office disagreed.
"The sheriff's department is going to pay attention to what the feds tell them to do," said Deputy District Attorney Josefa James, speaking in the courtroom to one of Ramos Stierle's lawyers.
On the immigration hold, James said, "we don't have anything to do with it, but there's nothing we can do about it, either."
About 50 activists and friends formed a meditation circle outside the courtroom and shared stories about Ramos Stierle as they awaited his arraignment.
Equipped with notepads, pens, cellphones and laptops, they spent hours making phone calls and writing emails and handwritten letters to local authorities.
"We all have the responsibility to do the right thing, and we're asking (District Attorney) Nancy O'Malley to do the right thing in this instance," said his lawyer, Yolanda Huang.
O'Malley did not return a request for comment.
Although Ramos Stierle is now in the county's custody, not the city's, Huang said county and federal authorities should respect ordinances approved by the Oakland City Council, which declared the city a sanctuary for all immigrants -- first in 1986, and then again in 2007.
"He was arrested on city property," Huang said. "He was arrested by Oakland police officers. And he's been held in the city of Oakland."
However, that "City of Refuge" policy has not been enforced, especially since Alameda County and all other Bay Area counties joined the federal Secure Communities network last year. Fingerprints of everyone arrested by local police get automatically sent to a federal database, which flags arrestees who appear to be immigrants subject to deportation, either because they are in the country illegally or committed a crime.
Lawyers and immigration authorities have declined to discuss how Ramos Stierle was able to live in the U.S. and whether or not he had permission to be living here.
"We are not at liberty to disclose further details about Mr. Stierle's immigration history," said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice, citing privacy restrictions. The agency has also not said if it intends to take custody of Ramos Stierle, but it did ask the county to keep him detained until agents decide if they wish to pick him up.
Lawyers said the immigration agency has 48 hours after the arraignment, which was late on Wednesday afternoon, to make that determination.
Friends said Ramos Stierle was from Mexico City and had studied at UC Berkeley on a student visa.
He dropped out of a graduate astrophysics program at the university in 2008 and became a full-time activist, they said.
A resident of Oakland's Fruitvale district, he gathered fruits from neighborhood trees and leftover organic produce from farmers markets and distributed the food for free to residents who needed it. He was involved in a range of causes, from immigrant rights to environmentalism, and had protested the city's gang injunctions. Much like a Buddhist monk, he lived off a "gift economy," supported by friends he inspired through his activism and secular spirituality.
"He only rides bikes," said friend Miriam Dowd, visiting the courtroom Wednesday. "He calls gasoline 'dinosaur juice.'"
Inspired by Gandhi, Ramos Stierle spent each Monday in silence, communicating only through writing. He was following that practice when Oakland police officers approached him after 6 a.m. Monday and arrested him.
When they asked him questions, he answered on a notepad. He maintained the vow of silence all day in the county jail, but cracked a smile every once in a while, said cellmate Paul Bloom of San Francisco.
"He was doing nothing but being a peaceful presence. That was our intention," said Adelaja Simon, 24, who was meditating with Ramos Stierle and another activist when the three of them were arrested. Simon, Bloom and more than 30 other arrested protesters were released later that day, but Ramos Stierle was kept in the county's custody because of the immigration hold.
Simon said Ramos Stierle was conscious of his actions and he did not feel worried about what would happen to his friend.
"He's calm and he's present, and wherever he lands, he'll still stand for love and he'll keep doing good work for the community," Simon said.
Staff writer Robert Salonga contributed to this story.
http://www.mercurynews.com/occupy-oakland/ci_19349925
Oakland Tribune
11/16/2011
OAKLAND -- Alameda County officials said Wednesday they have no authority to stop immigration agents from detaining and deporting an Occupy Oakland protester who was arrested while meditating outside City Hall.
The District Attorney's office dropped misdemeanor charges against 36-year-old activist Pancho Ramos Stierle for loitering and refusing to disperse from Frank H. Ogawa Plaza as riot police were clearing out the Occupy encampment there on Monday.
But while the criminal charges were dropped on Wednesday afternoon, a federal immigration hold on Ramos Stierle remains in effect and friends fear he could be deported to Mexico.
"I don't have the authority to go against the federal government," said Alameda County Superior Court Commissioner Karen Rodrigue, speaking to dozens of Ramos Stierle's supporters who came to his arraignment in a downtown courthouse.
The peace activist was among those arrested as riot police cleared the Occupy encampment in a predawn raid Monday.
He had been meditating on the plaza for more than three hours as police officers surrounded the camp and most other protesters fled.
After he was booked in a county jail, a federal fingerprints database flagged him as a deportable immigrant from Mexico. Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sent a note to jailers asking him to be held.
The activist's lawyers argued on Wednesday that the note -- called an immigration detainer -- is
merely a request for local authorities to keep him detained, not a demand, and that the county has the ability to reject it.
"Our position is that they don't have to honor the hold. That's clear as day," said lawyer Francisco Ugarte. "The federal government has said the hold is a request."
The sheriff's department and district attorney's office disagreed.
"The sheriff's department is going to pay attention to what the feds tell them to do," said Deputy District Attorney Josefa James, speaking in the courtroom to one of Ramos Stierle's lawyers.
On the immigration hold, James said, "we don't have anything to do with it, but there's nothing we can do about it, either."
About 50 activists and friends formed a meditation circle outside the courtroom and shared stories about Ramos Stierle as they awaited his arraignment.
Equipped with notepads, pens, cellphones and laptops, they spent hours making phone calls and writing emails and handwritten letters to local authorities.
"We all have the responsibility to do the right thing, and we're asking (District Attorney) Nancy O'Malley to do the right thing in this instance," said his lawyer, Yolanda Huang.
O'Malley did not return a request for comment.
Although Ramos Stierle is now in the county's custody, not the city's, Huang said county and federal authorities should respect ordinances approved by the Oakland City Council, which declared the city a sanctuary for all immigrants -- first in 1986, and then again in 2007.
"He was arrested on city property," Huang said. "He was arrested by Oakland police officers. And he's been held in the city of Oakland."
However, that "City of Refuge" policy has not been enforced, especially since Alameda County and all other Bay Area counties joined the federal Secure Communities network last year. Fingerprints of everyone arrested by local police get automatically sent to a federal database, which flags arrestees who appear to be immigrants subject to deportation, either because they are in the country illegally or committed a crime.
Lawyers and immigration authorities have declined to discuss how Ramos Stierle was able to live in the U.S. and whether or not he had permission to be living here.
"We are not at liberty to disclose further details about Mr. Stierle's immigration history," said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice, citing privacy restrictions. The agency has also not said if it intends to take custody of Ramos Stierle, but it did ask the county to keep him detained until agents decide if they wish to pick him up.
Lawyers said the immigration agency has 48 hours after the arraignment, which was late on Wednesday afternoon, to make that determination.
Friends said Ramos Stierle was from Mexico City and had studied at UC Berkeley on a student visa.
He dropped out of a graduate astrophysics program at the university in 2008 and became a full-time activist, they said.
A resident of Oakland's Fruitvale district, he gathered fruits from neighborhood trees and leftover organic produce from farmers markets and distributed the food for free to residents who needed it. He was involved in a range of causes, from immigrant rights to environmentalism, and had protested the city's gang injunctions. Much like a Buddhist monk, he lived off a "gift economy," supported by friends he inspired through his activism and secular spirituality.
"He only rides bikes," said friend Miriam Dowd, visiting the courtroom Wednesday. "He calls gasoline 'dinosaur juice.'"
Inspired by Gandhi, Ramos Stierle spent each Monday in silence, communicating only through writing. He was following that practice when Oakland police officers approached him after 6 a.m. Monday and arrested him.
When they asked him questions, he answered on a notepad. He maintained the vow of silence all day in the county jail, but cracked a smile every once in a while, said cellmate Paul Bloom of San Francisco.
"He was doing nothing but being a peaceful presence. That was our intention," said Adelaja Simon, 24, who was meditating with Ramos Stierle and another activist when the three of them were arrested. Simon, Bloom and more than 30 other arrested protesters were released later that day, but Ramos Stierle was kept in the county's custody because of the immigration hold.
Simon said Ramos Stierle was conscious of his actions and he did not feel worried about what would happen to his friend.
"He's calm and he's present, and wherever he lands, he'll still stand for love and he'll keep doing good work for the community," Simon said.
Staff writer Robert Salonga contributed to this story.
http://www.mercurynews.com/occupy-oakland/ci_19349925
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Westbrook home, Portland restaurant among targets of federal raids
From Staff Reports
American Journal
November 16, 2011 1:54 pm
WESTBROOK – Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this morning raided a Westbrook home and a restaurant on the Westbrook/Portland line.
Similar raids have been reported at restaurants in Brewer, Waterville and Lewiston.
The raid of the residence, at 100 Bridge St., near the Dana Warp Mill, involved Westbrook police officers as well as federal agents. Agents could be seen talking to a man outside the residence.
Agents also raided Kon, an Asian restaurant on Brighton Avenue in Portland, near I-95 and the Westbrook line.
Officials from ICE referred all questions to the U.S. Attorney's Office, which declined comment at the time. The raid coincided with raids at Super China Buffet in Waterville and Twin City Buffet in Brewer, as well as at a home in Brewer, which have been reported by Current Publishing's media partner, WCSH6 NEWSCENTER, which also reported that a sign at the Brewer restaurant said it is closed today. The Lewiston Sun Journal is reporting an ICE raid at a restaurant in Lewiston, as well.
Check back to keepmecurrent.com for more on this developing story.
http://www.keepmecurrent.com/american_journal/news/westbrook-home-portland-restaurant-among-targets-of-federal-raids/article_c6f1dad6-107a-11e1-9ad1-001cc4c03286.html
American Journal
November 16, 2011 1:54 pm
WESTBROOK – Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this morning raided a Westbrook home and a restaurant on the Westbrook/Portland line.
Similar raids have been reported at restaurants in Brewer, Waterville and Lewiston.
The raid of the residence, at 100 Bridge St., near the Dana Warp Mill, involved Westbrook police officers as well as federal agents. Agents could be seen talking to a man outside the residence.
Agents also raided Kon, an Asian restaurant on Brighton Avenue in Portland, near I-95 and the Westbrook line.
Officials from ICE referred all questions to the U.S. Attorney's Office, which declined comment at the time. The raid coincided with raids at Super China Buffet in Waterville and Twin City Buffet in Brewer, as well as at a home in Brewer, which have been reported by Current Publishing's media partner, WCSH6 NEWSCENTER, which also reported that a sign at the Brewer restaurant said it is closed today. The Lewiston Sun Journal is reporting an ICE raid at a restaurant in Lewiston, as well.
Check back to keepmecurrent.com for more on this developing story.
http://www.keepmecurrent.com/american_journal/news/westbrook-home-portland-restaurant-among-targets-of-federal-raids/article_c6f1dad6-107a-11e1-9ad1-001cc4c03286.html
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
La mayoría de deportados es gente honrada: Cónsul
Organización Editorial Mexicana
El Sol de Mexico
14 de noviembre de 2011
La Voz de la Frontera
Mexicali.- Las funciones de apoyo que realizan los Consulados de México en los Estados Unidos a los mexicanos residentes en dicho país, son muy amplias y abarcan muchos aspectos de las necesidades que tienen en lo referente a trámites personales para la obtención de documentos y otros programas, explicó ayer la Cónsul de nuestro país en Caléxico, ex diputada Gina Andrea Cruz Blackedge.
La funcionaria fue la invitada especial de la sesión semanal de todos los lunes del Grupo Los Madrugadores de Mexicali que coordina el señor José Holguín Navarro ante quienes hizo una amplia exposición de las diversas actividades que se desarrollan en apoyo de los mexicanos residentes en el valle Imperial vecino del municipio de Mexicali.
Entre ellas destacó la asistencia que se brinda a las personas que son deportadas, principalmente de niños a los cuales se les presta especial atención por ser más vulnerables que los adultos, además de estar al tanto de las horas en que son repatriados nuestros connacionales de los cuales algunos quieren volver a ingresar al vecino país y otros regresar a sus lugares de origen.
Al respecto, la Cónsul quien es oriunda de esta capital, indicó que el Consulado les brinda ayuda económica a estos mexicanos deportados la cual consiste en darles el boleto de regreso a sus entidades y 40 dólares más para los gastos del viaje, lo cual es aprovechado por muchos de ellos.
Dijo que esto es un acto de confianza a estas personas ya que aún cuando se les da seguimiento no se sabe si puedan bajarse en algún otro punto de esta zona fronteriza, ya que no existe un estudio sobre ello, además de que rechazó las aseveraciones de algunos de que los migrantes son culpables de que haya aumentado la inseguridad en Mexicali.
http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldemexico/notas/n2309247.htm
El Sol de Mexico
14 de noviembre de 2011
La Voz de la Frontera
Mexicali.- Las funciones de apoyo que realizan los Consulados de México en los Estados Unidos a los mexicanos residentes en dicho país, son muy amplias y abarcan muchos aspectos de las necesidades que tienen en lo referente a trámites personales para la obtención de documentos y otros programas, explicó ayer la Cónsul de nuestro país en Caléxico, ex diputada Gina Andrea Cruz Blackedge.
La funcionaria fue la invitada especial de la sesión semanal de todos los lunes del Grupo Los Madrugadores de Mexicali que coordina el señor José Holguín Navarro ante quienes hizo una amplia exposición de las diversas actividades que se desarrollan en apoyo de los mexicanos residentes en el valle Imperial vecino del municipio de Mexicali.
Entre ellas destacó la asistencia que se brinda a las personas que son deportadas, principalmente de niños a los cuales se les presta especial atención por ser más vulnerables que los adultos, además de estar al tanto de las horas en que son repatriados nuestros connacionales de los cuales algunos quieren volver a ingresar al vecino país y otros regresar a sus lugares de origen.
Al respecto, la Cónsul quien es oriunda de esta capital, indicó que el Consulado les brinda ayuda económica a estos mexicanos deportados la cual consiste en darles el boleto de regreso a sus entidades y 40 dólares más para los gastos del viaje, lo cual es aprovechado por muchos de ellos.
Dijo que esto es un acto de confianza a estas personas ya que aún cuando se les da seguimiento no se sabe si puedan bajarse en algún otro punto de esta zona fronteriza, ya que no existe un estudio sobre ello, además de que rechazó las aseveraciones de algunos de que los migrantes son culpables de que haya aumentado la inseguridad en Mexicali.
http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldemexico/notas/n2309247.htm
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Mexican Deportees Strain Cities South Of The Border
By Jason Beaubien
NPR
9 November 2011
For many Mexican migrants who've just been deported from the United States, the border city Reynosa is where the American Dream dies.
Maria Nidelia Avila Basurto is a Catholic nun who heads a church-run shelter for deportees in Reynosa, in the northeast corner of Mexico, just across from McAllen, Texas.
"Many of them arrive with nothing," she says. "We have to give them everything — clothes, shoes, everything."
Last year, the U.S. deported a record number of immigrants. Almost 400,000 people who were in the country illegally were arrested and sent back to their home countries.
The vast majority were Mexicans, and many were released into dangerous cities like Reynosa. The city is struggling to deal with the thousands of deportees who arrive each month and are vulnerable to violent thugs, drug gangs and corrupt officials.
Temporary Assistance
Avila's shelter feeds the deportees and offers them bunks to sleep in, but only for three nights, then they have to leave. In the past, the shelter was shut during the day. Residents were expected to go out and search for work or try to line up help from relatives.
Many of them arrive with nothing. We have to give them everything — clothes, shoes, everything.
- Catholic nun Maria Nidelia Avila Basurto, who runs a shelter for Mexicans deported from the U.S.
But Reynosa has gotten so dangerous over the past couple of years that now, rather than the deportees being locked out of the shelter during the day, they're locked in.
Avila says that when the deportees were out during the day, many of them were abducted, beaten or robbed. But by keeping them in the shelter, the nun says, they've been able to avoid that.
Mexican kidnapping gangs often target people who have family in the United States under the assumption that most can quickly raise a ransom of $500 or $1,000.
This part of Mexico isn't dangerous just for migrants. Even the former mayor and his son were kidnapped over the summer.
Avila says her problem is that the number of deportees continues to rise, making it harder for the shelter to help them make the transition back into Mexico.
Deportation Numbers Growing
Lately the deportations are happening every day, she says. Many days, 100 or 120 are released by U.S. immigration officials at the international bridge adjacent to downtown Reynosa. For some of them, this is their first taste of freedom after serving lengthy criminal sentences in the U.S. Others were picked up for drunk driving or traffic offenses.
Santana Castrejon Alvarez, 58, said he was arrested after being caught using a fake Social Security number. "In the United States, everyone buys fake documents. Everyone. Unfortunately, I bought them too, like everyone else," he said.
Castrejon says he spent much of his 21 years in the U.S. working at a McDonald's in Chicago. He also worked in a plastics factory and a pizza restaurant. Castrejon had just started a new job, and the employer turned him in to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
He says he has no intention of staying in Mexico and plans to try to cross again illegally into the U.S.
"Here, I don't know where to go because all my family is still over there in Chicago. My wife, my sister, nieces, nephews — everyone," he says.
For the deportees who do decide to stay in Mexico, they face more than just the perilous streets of Reynosa. Jobs are scarce. The minimum wage is the equivalent of $5 a day. And corruption is rampant.
Deportees Need Mexican Documents
Many of the deportees arrive in Reynosa with no form of identification. As the drug war has spread in Mexico, so have security checkpoints. It's nearly impossible to move through the country without a picture ID. Volunteers from a local human rights group make temporary credentials for anyone who needs them.
The volunteers have just returned from the printer and are distributing them to the deportees.
Jose Elejarza Maldonado with the Center for Border Studies and Human Rights in Reynosa says that without some form of identification, the returning migrants will fall prey to corrupt officials.
Elejarza says his group regularly gets complaints that corrupt police and other authorities steal from these individuals.
The Mexican government does help deportees with one-way bus tickets to their home states, and the U.S. government has started flying more of them into Central Mexico, but still thousands end up being exiled each month into violent border cities such as Reynosa.
Migrant advocates here say that roughly 30 percent of the deportees immediately turn around and head north. They'd rather take their chances with the U.S. Border Patrol than venture out into an environment where they could get beaten, robbed, kidnapped or worse.
http://www.npr.org/2011/11/09/141932810/mexican-deportees-strain-cities-south-of-the-border
NPR
9 November 2011
For many Mexican migrants who've just been deported from the United States, the border city Reynosa is where the American Dream dies.
Maria Nidelia Avila Basurto is a Catholic nun who heads a church-run shelter for deportees in Reynosa, in the northeast corner of Mexico, just across from McAllen, Texas.
"Many of them arrive with nothing," she says. "We have to give them everything — clothes, shoes, everything."
Last year, the U.S. deported a record number of immigrants. Almost 400,000 people who were in the country illegally were arrested and sent back to their home countries.
The vast majority were Mexicans, and many were released into dangerous cities like Reynosa. The city is struggling to deal with the thousands of deportees who arrive each month and are vulnerable to violent thugs, drug gangs and corrupt officials.
Temporary Assistance
Avila's shelter feeds the deportees and offers them bunks to sleep in, but only for three nights, then they have to leave. In the past, the shelter was shut during the day. Residents were expected to go out and search for work or try to line up help from relatives.
Many of them arrive with nothing. We have to give them everything — clothes, shoes, everything.
- Catholic nun Maria Nidelia Avila Basurto, who runs a shelter for Mexicans deported from the U.S.
But Reynosa has gotten so dangerous over the past couple of years that now, rather than the deportees being locked out of the shelter during the day, they're locked in.
Avila says that when the deportees were out during the day, many of them were abducted, beaten or robbed. But by keeping them in the shelter, the nun says, they've been able to avoid that.
Mexican kidnapping gangs often target people who have family in the United States under the assumption that most can quickly raise a ransom of $500 or $1,000.
This part of Mexico isn't dangerous just for migrants. Even the former mayor and his son were kidnapped over the summer.
Avila says her problem is that the number of deportees continues to rise, making it harder for the shelter to help them make the transition back into Mexico.
Deportation Numbers Growing
Lately the deportations are happening every day, she says. Many days, 100 or 120 are released by U.S. immigration officials at the international bridge adjacent to downtown Reynosa. For some of them, this is their first taste of freedom after serving lengthy criminal sentences in the U.S. Others were picked up for drunk driving or traffic offenses.
Santana Castrejon Alvarez, 58, said he was arrested after being caught using a fake Social Security number. "In the United States, everyone buys fake documents. Everyone. Unfortunately, I bought them too, like everyone else," he said.
Castrejon says he spent much of his 21 years in the U.S. working at a McDonald's in Chicago. He also worked in a plastics factory and a pizza restaurant. Castrejon had just started a new job, and the employer turned him in to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
He says he has no intention of staying in Mexico and plans to try to cross again illegally into the U.S.
"Here, I don't know where to go because all my family is still over there in Chicago. My wife, my sister, nieces, nephews — everyone," he says.
For the deportees who do decide to stay in Mexico, they face more than just the perilous streets of Reynosa. Jobs are scarce. The minimum wage is the equivalent of $5 a day. And corruption is rampant.
Deportees Need Mexican Documents
Many of the deportees arrive in Reynosa with no form of identification. As the drug war has spread in Mexico, so have security checkpoints. It's nearly impossible to move through the country without a picture ID. Volunteers from a local human rights group make temporary credentials for anyone who needs them.
The volunteers have just returned from the printer and are distributing them to the deportees.
Jose Elejarza Maldonado with the Center for Border Studies and Human Rights in Reynosa says that without some form of identification, the returning migrants will fall prey to corrupt officials.
Elejarza says his group regularly gets complaints that corrupt police and other authorities steal from these individuals.
The Mexican government does help deportees with one-way bus tickets to their home states, and the U.S. government has started flying more of them into Central Mexico, but still thousands end up being exiled each month into violent border cities such as Reynosa.
Migrant advocates here say that roughly 30 percent of the deportees immediately turn around and head north. They'd rather take their chances with the U.S. Border Patrol than venture out into an environment where they could get beaten, robbed, kidnapped or worse.
http://www.npr.org/2011/11/09/141932810/mexican-deportees-strain-cities-south-of-the-border
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)