Thread: Young man facing deportation says 'America is all I know'

Young man facing deportation says 'America is all I know'
By BERTRAND M. GUTIERREZ | Winston-Salem Journal
Published: July 24, 2011

Fredd Reyes didn't know how to tie his shoes or dress himself — or that he was an illegal immigrant.

Back then, Reyes was 2 years old.

But 22 years later, Reyes is acutely aware of his immigration status and the narrow life it brings.

Reyes, who is originally from Guatemala and has lived in Thomasville since his middle school years, now finds himself shouldering the legacy of his parents' pursuit of a better life, albeit a pursuit beyond legal bounds. As part of that legacy, Reyes didn't choose whether to live in the United States, and he does not get to choose whether he can stay. An immigration judge in Charlotte will do that, possibly as early as Sept. 6, his next immigration court hearing.

"It's hard to imagine the fact that they (the U.S. government) are telling me, 'You're not an American. You're illegal.' This is where I learned to walk, where I learned to talk.

"It's very humiliating. It's degrading. I'm an asset to this country. I'm not a liability. I want to be able to give back everything that this country has given me. I have done everything that Americans do. The only thing I don't have is a document saying I'm an American," Reyes said.

Reyes' first steps as an immigrant happened in 1988, when as a 2-year-old he legally entered the United States with a visa, flying with his mother from Guatemala to New York to visit his father, who was already there on business. At the time, the family was escaping death threats during Guatemala's three-decade-long civil war. But he is not authorized to be in the United States because the family overstayed the visa, and attempts to gain legal status have failed.

As a result, seemingly simple things, such as owning a car and getting a job, have been complicated for Reyes.

Reyes was able to get a valid driver's license as a high school student.
But that was before Congress passed the Real ID Act of 2005, which made it tougher to get a license. The federal law, aimed at tightening security in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, required states to obtain certain documentation before issuing a license. Such documents include a birth certificate, passport, permanent-resident card or visa.

So Reyes will not be able to renew his driver's license in November when it expires.

Finding work has not been a major problem because Reyes' father obtained valid Social Security numbers for his family years ago, when he was still authorized to be in the United States. Reyes has worked at a YMCA, a McDonald's and a barber shop. Now, he makes money by playing his guitar and singing. On Friday, he had a gig scheduled at a Thai restaurant in High Point, mostly cover songs, everything from the Beatles to the blues.

International backing
As an artist, Reyes would have a hard time finding a job in Guatemala, says Beatriz Illescas, general counsel for the Guatemalan Consulate in Atlanta, which covers Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas. In her view, he doesn't belong there.

"There are so many people who are in the same situation. They have been here all their lives. They are really American, and there is no place for them anywhere.

"He is a great kid, but he does not have any idea where he is going," in Guatemala, and he does not have any close family members there, she said. "Even though he has Guatemalan parents, he is American. He went to school here. The differences in our societies are huge. It would be a very strong hardship for him.

"The reality is that he would be going to a place that he has never been and doesn't really know," she said.

Meanwhile, Reyes has no document to substantiate what he thinks he is: an American.

"This is my home. America is all I know. I grew up eating pizza and hamburgers and watching Yankees games, listening to rock'n'roll and blues and being inspired by everything that America has to offer," he said.

Out-of-the-blue arrest
Officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement went to Reyes' home on Sept. 24. They arrested him and would have arrested his mother, but they didn't, he said, because his little brother, who is a U.S. citizen, was also in the house. ICE officials let her stay with him at that moment, but she still faces the same deportation proceedings that Reyes does.

Reyes doesn't know why ICE targeted his family, seemingly out of the blue, but he suspects that his sister's former boyfriend alerted ICE.
After his arrest, Reyes spent two months in a Georgia detention center and was almost deported, but Illescas, the Guatemalan general counsel, bought him some time.

As it turns out, ICE cannot go through with a deportation without first obtaining the proper travel documents from the destination country, she said. In Illescas' eight years working with the Guatemalan consulate in Houston, Miami and Atlanta, she has refused to issue the necessary travel documents no more than five times, she said.
One of those instances was in Reyes' case.

"From time to time, in cases like this, you have the right to say, 'I will not,'" she said. "But you have to be respectful of the country so you cannot do it often."

After that, Reyes was able to get deferred action, a measure that ICE officials use in certain cases to halt deportation proceedings.

An awakening
For Reyes, awareness of his immigration status came during his teen years.

But in the 1990s, while attending elementary school in the New York borough of Queens, Reyes was not aware that he was an illegal immigrant when he went with his parents to visit an immigration attorney as they tried unsuccessfully to gain U.S. citizenship. A visit to the attorney, Reyes said, seemed to him like a visit to the doctor or the dentist.

He was not aware of his immigration status when he moved from Queens to Thomasville during middle school.

Reality hit him about six years ago, as his high school classmates started making postgraduation plans that he could not. Reyes said he got accepted conditionally to UNC Chapel Hill and New York University. But he shelved plans to go to either school because he could not provide documentation proving that he was authorized to be in the United States.

"Being undocumented, it's something that hits you after you get out of high school because you're living your whole life trying to make something of yourself, planning goals, and you have your dreams just like any other person.

"But once you start applying to go to college, it's like, 'Wow, I can't go to this place because they ask for documentation.' And there are other places you want to go to that might accept you, but they'll charge you just a ridiculous amount.

"So it's kind of like you start to realize from there — I'm not like everybody else. That's when you begin to kind of lose yourself, when you start wondering what the next step is," Reyes said.

On Sept. 6, he and his mother must present themselves to immigration officials in Charlotte and show that they have filed a motion to reopen the petition for citizenship that the family filed in the 1990s, Reyes said. His other hope of staying in the United States hinges on Congress and whether it passes some sort of immigration-reform legislation.

Under the Dream Act, which was introduced again in the Senate and House in May, Reyes could seek a path toward legalization. Still, Illescas says, Reyes should not be too surprised if he is ordered back to Guatemala.

"Be prepared — because even though you have lawyers, any moment they can tell you that you have to go," she said.

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(Mod Edit/ Separated paragraphs/ RB)

This was not our fault or responsibility it was his parents now it is his.

Newsflash!! It's hard for an artist to get a job in the U.S. too. Not our problem. Talk to your parents about whey they decided to break our laws for their own personal gain.

Well its like this he is young enough that he can learn and start over.His lose is our gain.He can blame his parents for breaking the law.

If Immigraton laws were enforced this would not happen! His parents broke the law putting him in this position. The lack of enforcement allowed this to continue to this point. His parents should be arrested and deported too.

Send his butt back home, as an artist how is he really going to be an asset for the U.S? He's definitely a liabilty to this country.

He can go back to the country his parents came from and paint lines on the roads there. He is here illegally...he deserves to be deported

Can he play:
ELLA FITZGERALD - CRY ME A RIVER

I wonder how many fans at the recent USA-Mexico soccer match were anchor babies and illegal aliens who say the same thing, but root for the mother country? Not buying it, deport!

Reyes doesn't know why ICE targeted his family, seemingly out of the blue, but he suspects that his sister's former boyfriend alerted ICE.

Jeez, why isn't it that easy for ALL of us to turn illegals in? I could get rid of all my "neighbors" in NC in one fell swoop...LOL!