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  1. #1
    Senior Member FedUpinFarmersBranch's Avatar
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    NC- Deported parents leaving children born in U.S.

    Published Sun, Dec 20, 2009 02:00 AM
    Modified Mon, Dec 21, 2009 08:08 AM

    Deported parents leaving children born in U.S.



    Norma Villeda pulls out clothes for her son while staying with her sister-in-law in Apex. Since Villeda was ordered out of the country and her husband, Carlos Garcia, was deported, she has sold their home and packed what's left of their possessions into three suitcases.

    BY KRISTIN COLLINS -


    APEX -- In the five months since immigration agents knocked on her door, Norma Villeda has sold her home and furnishings and shuttered her husband's business. She now sleeps in the living room of her sister-in-law's trailer, what's left of her possessions packed into three suitcases.

    But the biggest loss has yet to come.

    When she returns to her native Mexico at the end of this month, at the order of U.S. immigration officials, she will leave behind her daughter, Nancy, a U.S.-born high school senior who aspires to go to college.

    "The reason my parents came here was to start a new future, have something better," said Nancy, who has a 3.9 grade point average at Apex High School. "I felt like if I gave that up, their hard work would be in vain."

    As the federal government has ramped up immigration enforcement in the past few years, it has deported tens of thousands of immigrants, some of whom had lived illegally in the United States for a decade or more. The parents among them face a decision: take their U.S.-born children to countries where they might not be able to afford education or medical care, or leave them with friends or relatives in the United States.

    Immigration lawyers, advocates and Mexican consular officials say many are choosing the latter, because they fear their children have no future in the native countries of their parents. The situation has become so common that some now counsel parents on how to select a caregiver and transfer legal guardianship.

    Attracta Kelly, an immigration lawyer with the N.C. Justice Center, said she has had several clients who chose to leave their children, most because they wanted them to finish their schooling here. In every case, she said the decision was "excruciating."

    Federal immigration officials say parents are responsible for their predicaments.

    "Parenthood does not make you immune from having to comply with the nation's laws, and the responsibility for any negative consequences lies squarely with the violator," Ivan Ortiz, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, said in a statement.

    Missed court date

    When Norma and Carlos made it across the Rio Grande as teenagers in the late 1980s, they faced little risk of being deported. Enforcement was scant, and for the few illegal immigrants who were caught, having U.S.-born children was often enough to persuade a judge to allow them to stay.

    Now, the government grants leniency in only the most extreme cases.

    Norma and Carlos are being deported because they failed to show up for an immigration court date in 1997.

    They say they were taken in by a Florida scam artist, posing as a lawyer, who promised to get them visas. They paid him $300 each, and when they heard nothing further, figured he had stolen their money.

    But when immigration agents found them this summer, they discovered that he had filed a political asylum request and failed to tell them about the court date when it would be heard.

    When they didn't show up, the judge ordered them deported, making them fugitives. They say they never knew.

    If not for that missed court date, they would have soon become legal residents.

    They have parents and siblings who are U.S. citizens, and more than a decade ago, Norma and Carlos were approved for family-based visas. But because of immigration quotas, they are still on the waiting list to receive them.

    Ortiz, the ICE spokesman, said he could not comment on this specific case, but he said the agency has recently made an unprecedented effort to find fugitives. More than half a million fugitive cases remain open, but for the first time in years, that number has begun to decline.

    ICE's priority is finding fugitives who have committed crimes or pose a threat to national security, Ortiz said. But he added that the agency has a mandate to pursue all fugitives, even those with clean criminal records.

    During their two decades in the United States, Norma and Carlos worked their way from tobacco field workers living in a labor camp to middle-class homeowners. For the past eight years, they owned a well-kept home a few blocks from downtown Apex. Both became fluent in English.

    Carlos ran a business installing windows, sometimes working 16-hour days. Norma cleaned houses and earned a GED. They hoped to put Nancy and their 7-year-old son, Carlitos, through college.

    At 5 on a July morning, immigration agents banged on their door. They took Carlos away in handcuffs, held him in prison and, in October, deported him.

    Norma was allowed to remain with their children but must leave the country by Dec. 31 - a process known as voluntary departure. She said she has asked repeatedly to stay just until Nancy graduates high school in June. Immigration officials refused.

    "I begged," Norma said, "because she's going to be alone. There will be no one."

    Opportunity for Nancy

    Norma will take her son - a U.S. citizen - with her, but she has found a friend willing to take Nancy in until she leaves for college. Nancy - shy and devoted to her mother - agreed.

    Norma says she wants Nancy to get the education she couldn't, growing up in the Mexican state of Queretaro. There, her family didn't have enough money for food or school tuition. Secondary education in Mexico is not free.

    During her last year of school, when she was 14, Norma says, she had a single pencil, so small that she struggled to write. She reused an old notebook, erasing last year's notes with a piece of rubber.

    At 15, she crossed the border to join her father, who worked in the tobacco fields around Apex. She planned to earn just enough money to finish high school.

    "I know it's a crime; I know you're not supposed to do it that way," Norma said, as she described floating across the Rio Grande in an old tire at night. "But people don't understand why you want to cross the border and risk your life. We don't have many options. For me, there was no other option."

    In Apex, she soon met Carlos, a fellow field worker, and became pregnant.

    Nancy grew into a teenager who spent weekends at the mall and the movies - a child who could not imagine wishing for a single long pencil with an eraser.

    Nancy says she knew her parents could not get drivers licenses or travel out of the country. She knew that other immigrants like them had been deported. But, mostly, she thought of her family as no different from those of her American friends, most of whom she had known since grade school.

    "I never thought this kind of thing could happen to us," Nancy says, "because we were just such a normal family."

    Amid the tumult, Nancy has taken SATs and met with college advisers. She is completing applications to Meredith and Salem colleges. She doesn't know yet how she will pay tuition.

    Every two weeks, she meets with a local pastor, the Rev. Jose Luis Villasenor, who gives her the support her mother can't.

    "There was one time where I did not know what to do," said Villasenor, pastor at Apex United Methodist Church. "She would not stop crying. She wouldn't say anything. I think she feels the world is falling apart."

    Hard road ahead

    Advocates say children left alone in the United States face a tough road.

    Tony Asion, director of the statewide group El Pueblo, said he knows of two teens who stayed after their parents were deported. Both had been active with El Pueblo but soon disappeared.

    In one case, the girl dropped out of school to work. In another, even the family that had taken in the boy doesn't know where he ended up.

    Activists who favor an immigration crackdown say there is a simple solution to the problem: Parents can take their children with them.

    "Mexico is not Auschwitz," said Mark Krikorian, director of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, which argues for strict enforcement. "It's an upper middle income country by world standards."

    Carlos said that, in two months in Queretaro, he has found only an occasional day's work. He lives with Norma's parents and washes cars to earn money. Norma said she hopes to find work in a factory, earning about $17 a week.

    He and Norma are barred from returning to the United States for 10years, even to visit. But Norma is holding onto her dreams for Carlitos, too.

    She says that in four years, when Nancy finishes college, she might send Carlitos to live with his sister, giving him a shot at college too.

    For now, as she savors these last few days with Nancy, Norma says she is trying to focus on the good that has sprung from this trial.

    "It's giving my kids a lesson," she said. "They have to be strong. They have to fight. They have to work hard for what they want, because nothing is going to come easy."

    kristin.collins@newsobserver.com


    http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/249127.html
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  2. #2
    Senior Member bigtex's Avatar
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    Re: NC- Deported parents leaving children born in U.S.

    Quote Originally Posted by FedUpinFarmersBranch


    When she returns to her native Mexico at the end of this month, at the order of U.S. immigration officials, she will leave behind her daughter, Nancy, a U.S.-born high school senior who aspires to go to college.
    What kind of sorry excuse for a human would have a kid and then just leave it with someone else. This shows why America is having so many problems in our schools and so many gang problems. Obviously there is very little value being place on all of the kids illegals are having other than their potential to work and provide services around the house. Any parent that truly cares about their kids would take their kids with them in a situation like this. We need to pass a law that would prevent these sorry individuals from abandoning their kids and leaving them here as wards of the American taxpayer.
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  3. #3
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    When Norma and Carlos made it across the Rio Grande as teenagers in the late 1980s, they faced little risk of being deported. Enforcement was scant, and for the few illegal immigrants who were caught, having U.S.-born children was often enough to persuade a judge to allow them to stay.
    Well, there was a massive amnesty for illegal invaders in 1986. So chances are, they arrived after that amnesty, which means they were also likely inspired to invade this country with visions if cashing in on the next amnesty!


    Amnesties do nothing more than encourage more lawlessness! No more amnesties!
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  4. #4
    Senior Member SOSADFORUS's Avatar
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    I swear they make these sob stories up too get to people, in hopes they will support amnesty. It is probably LaRaza....they can not be trusted
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  5. #5
    Senior Member SicNTiredInSoCal's Avatar
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    Deported parents leaving children born in U.S.
    NO! Take them with you!!!! We won't mind! Really!
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  6. #6
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    Now explain to my why any parent would leave their child any where...this is the kind of person that this Government is wanting to give freely the rights in this Country to...

    Wake up....

  7. #7
    Senior Member Dixie's Avatar
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    Kristin I know you don't get it most of the time so I'm going to help you with this one. That's why they are called anchor babies. They hope the kid can visa sponsor them back into the country when they turn 18.

    Duh!

    Anchor babies are exploited children.

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  8. #8
    Senior Member butterbean's Avatar
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    "Parenthood does not make you immune from having to comply with the nation's laws, and the responsibility for any negative consequences lies squarely with the violator," Ivan Ortiz, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, said in a statement.
    Exacty! I am fed up with these sob stories being pushed by open-border idiots. Every country has laws enforcing immigration, even Mexico. All Americans ask for is that our immigration laws are enforced.
    RIP Butterbean! We miss you and hope you are well in heaven.-- Your ALIPAC friends

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  9. #9
    Senior Member miguelina's Avatar
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    This story has so many holes, it's laughable!

    In the five months since immigration agents knocked on her door, Norma Villeda has sold her home and furnishings and shuttered her husband's business. She now sleeps in the living room of her sister-in-law's trailer, what's left of her possessions packed into three suitcases.
    Norma was allowed to remain with their children but must leave the country by Dec. 31 - a process known as voluntary departure. She said she has asked repeatedly to stay just until Nancy graduates high school in June. Immigration officials refused.

    "I begged," Norma said, "because she's going to be alone. There will be no one."
    No one? What about your sister-in-law?



    At 15, she crossed the border to join her father, who worked in the tobacco fields around Apex. She planned to earn just enough money to finish high school.
    In Apex, she soon met Carlos, a fellow field worker, and became pregnant.
    Guess she learned it was easier to get knocked up than go to school.



    Norma says she wants Nancy to get the education she couldn't, growing up in the Mexican state of Queretaro. There, her family didn't have enough money for food or school tuition. Secondary education in Mexico is not free.
    Yeah well school ain't free in the USA either, idiota. We get stuck paying for your brats, because you had no qualms about popping out the anchors without a thought of how you were going to support them!

    You were able to make $$$ in the US mainly thru welfare programs for your anchors and generally ripping off us taxpayers, now good riddance. Get out and stay out!!
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)
    "

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