Thread: Illegal immigrant made his choices; now others join in paying the price

Illegal immigrant made his choices; now others join in paying the price: Kevin O'Brien


By Kevin OBrien, The Plain Dealer
on January 14, 2014 at 5:30 PM,




Ricardo Ramos stands by a statue of the Madonna during a break in a Monday protest march from Painesville to St. Casimir Catholic Church in Cleveland opposing the planned deportation of Ramos later this week. Kevin O'Brien writes that the law should be obeyed and that Ramos, as an illegal immigrant, should be required to return to Mexico.

Gus Chan, The Plain Dealer

Let’s assume that Ricardo Ramos is a nice guy, a good husband, a good father, a friendly neighbor and a hard worker.There’s no reason not to assume any of those things.

He has a quite a few people in his corner — the kind of support that doesn’t generally rally around guys who aren’t nice.

Now, let’s put aside assumptions and turn to what we know beyond any doubt whatsoever:

Ricardo Ramos is not a victim of circumstance. The life he is living today is the product of his very own carefully considered decisions, freely made.

Nor is he a victim of a system that is “broken.”

On the contrary, for 16 years he has been the beneficiary of a system that is broken and that successive presidential administrations and Congresses have refused to repair.

Ricardo Ramos is an illegal immigrant.

Sixteen years ago, he decided he would try to beat that system, as tens of millions of others have done. And from that day until very recently, his luck held.

He put down deep roots in the Painesville area, working a couple of jobs and fathering three children who, having been born on American soil, are American citizens according to the law.

Ah, yes, the law again.

Sometimes you work against it; sometimes you work with it. Sometimes you pray that it won’t catch up with you; sometimes you rush to embrace it as your champion.

It was a traffic law that caught up with Ramos two years ago.

When the police stopped him for violating the rules of the road, he proved to be doubly undocumented — bereft of a driver’s license and any paperwork showing that he had the right to reside in the United States.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ruled that he would have to return to Mexico on Jan. 1. He’s still here, at least until Thursday, on a stay of the decision engineered by U.S. Reps. Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat, and Dave Joyce, a Republican.

They must think Ramos is a nice guy, too. And, as stipulated, he probably is one.

But the law isn’t made just for bad guys. It’s designed to apply to everyone. And the people who enforce it and who decide its implications in courtrooms are supposed to do so “without respect to persons.” That means they’re not to tailor the effects of the law to suit someone who happens to be wealthy, or have friends in high places, or just be one heck of a nice, hard-working guy.

Applying the law that way lets everyone know where they stand. Doing it that way cancels any false hope that a particularly nice or well-connected guy — a president’s uncle, for example — might be able to talk his way around what’s on the law books.

But we often don’t do it that way when it comes to immigration; haven’t for years and years.

And so we see (and pretend not to see) millions of lawbreakers. And sometimes we see marches like the one that took place on Monday — when 70 good-hearted people walked from Mentor to Cleveland to call attention to Ricardo Ramos’ case. They would like immigration law to respect a person — to look the other way — as it has respected other people.

Their argument boils down to: Look, the guy isn’t a troublemaker. He’s been here for 16 years. He has three kids. It would be a shame to break up the family.

And they’re right. It would be.

So Ricardo Ramos, who put all of this in motion with his decision to enter this country illegally years ago, has some more decisions to make. And now a lot of other lives will be profoundly affected.

It’s a lousy situation. But it’s the fault of the “system” only to the extent that the system has been beaten, trampled on, ignored, vandalized and winked at to the point that those who would beat it are simply contemptuous of it.

The personal circumstances of Ricardo Ramos, his wife and his three American-born children are entirely the creation of his conscious decision to break U.S. immigration law.

Now, two years after his lawbreaking came to light, there are consequences to be paid and, assuming the law is allowed to prevail in the case, heartaches to be endured.

The conflict here is personal, not legal.

If Ramos wants his children to stay and enjoy the blessings of life in America, his children have every right to do so.

If he wants to take them home with him to Mexico and keep the family together, he has every right to do that.

It’s hard to say Ramos made a mistake by coming here. Financially and personally, he may have done better here than he would have in Mexico. He got away with breaking the law for 16 long years, and reaped the benefits of living in what must be a nicer place than home — or else he would have gone back.

But now, time’s up. Ultimately, he lost his gamble. He got caught.

One of his backers told The News Herald of Lake County at Monday’s march, “We needed to send a message that we’re going to fight until the end. Our families are everything. … We’re going to do whatever it takes to keep our families together.”

It’s a noble sentiment, but no fighting is necessary to accomplish that. If keeping the family together is paramount, on Thursday all of the Ramoses will be headed for a new life together in Mexico.

That’s clearly not the goal of people who support immigration lawbreakers, though.

What’s paramount to them is the further enfeeblement of the law and the intimidation of public officials who don’t surrender to their emotionally overwrought arguments.

It’s impossible not to feel sorry for the Ramos family. But logic demands an honest look at how they found themselves in this position.

They aren’t in this position because of the law. They’re in this position because Ricardo Ramos decided 16 years ago to break the law. And they’re in this position because, as 16 years passed and his family grew, he made the conscious decision to remain where he had no right to be, and hope his luck wouldn’t run out.

This isn’t a tragedy; it’s a big inconvenience.

I’m rooting for the family to stay together, but if Ricardo Ramos decides it’s better for them to stay here without him, well, he won’t be the first father to decide it’s necessary to live apart from his family for a while.

There’s no law against it.

O’Brien is The Plain Dealer’s deputy editorial page editor.
http://www.cleveland.com/obrien/inde...e_his_cho.html

January 17, 2014
newsnet5.com

CLEVELAND - The Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement reports that Ricardo Ramos, the Perry man fighting deportation, was convicted of driving under the influence in 2006 and that arrangements are being made for his deportation.

Moments before his scheduled deportation processing, the Lake County undocumented immigrant who has been fighting deportation since Jan. 1 was informed that he could remain free from custody while agents make arrangements for his deportation.

Ramos received an order to turn himself in at the U.S. Federal Building in Cleveland by 3 p.m. today, and the family held a press conference this afternoon at the FREE stamp sculpture on Lakeside Avenue downtown. They had planned to walk to the federal building, where Ramos would turn himself in.

NewsChannel5 first reported about Ramos in December when he was supposed to be deported on New Year’s Day.

According to the ICE, Ramos was convicted of driving under the influence in 2006 and was ordered to leave the country after failing to present a valid travel document by June 24, 2013.

But he was granted a two-week stay.

Supporters marched 20 miles Monday in protest of his deportation.

Ramos told NewsChannel5 he was informed he wouldn’t be arrested as long as he voluntarily left the country by his deadline. He has lived in the United States for 16 years and has no criminal record, he told NewsChannel5, but was pulled over last year and prosecuted for driving without a license.

He was originally ordered to leave by Jan 1 but was granted a two-week stay hours before his deadline.

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/local-n...or-deportation