Thread: Palo Alto school fundraiser helps kids be with deported pare

Palo Alto school fundraiser helps kids be with deported parents
By Kristina Peterson
MediaNews
Article Launched: 04/04/2007 01:38:25 AM PDT


Thanks to an outpouring of community support, four Palo Alto schoolchildren facing separation from their parents learned Tuesday that they instead will accompany their mother when she is deported to Mexico this week.

"I just want to stay like a family and not be separated," 10-year-old Yadira Ramirez said Tuesday after her school, Barron Park Elementary, raised enough money to buy plane tickets for Yadira and her siblings.

Their plight became a lightning rod for immigrant-rights advocates and others in the community - including a congresswoman - who rallied to keep Isabel Aguirre and Pedro Ramirez from having to leave their U.S.-born children behind.

The issue of families being split apart because of deportations has been a hot one throughout the Bay Area in the face of recent sweeps by federal immigration officers. The raids, part of a nationwide crackdown on illegal immigration, have snared hundreds of immigrants locally and prompted an outcry from civil-rights organizations.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, expressed sympathy for the family, "especially the four children who face extraordinary hardships at such young ages."

She also connected their case to the broader battle over immigration, saying she has seen "many similar cases, each of them putting real and tragic human faces on the flaws in our immigration policy."

Aguirre had spent the past month lobbying Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, saying she and her husband, who was deported in February, couldn't afford to fly their children to Mexico.

But after the school's fundraiser, she was able to inform immigration officials Tuesday that her children, Yadira; Pedro, 15, a freshman at Gunn High School; Adrian, 12, a seventh-grader at Terman Middle School; and Adriana, 6, a kindergartner at Barron Park, would be able to join her, ICE spokeswoman Lori Haley said.

Aguirre, speaking through an interpreter, declined to comment Tuesday.

Haley said an immigration judge ruled in August 2002 that the parents had no legal basis to remain in the country, years after immigration authorities first served them with a removal order. The family appealed the decision but missed a court appearance - saying their lawyer, whom they later learned had been disbarred in 2002, had told them not to worry and that everything was on track - and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the case in 2005.

Aguirre will not be able to return to the United States for a minimum of 10 years, said Samina Sundas, chairwoman of American Muslim Voice, whose organization has been working with the Ramirez family, who had lived in the United States for about 20 years. Sundas said she got involved because the family's case resonated with her group's humanitarian mission.

Chris Schulz, Pedro's math teacher at Gunn High School, said the teen had been struggling since his father's arrest in February over whether to stay in the United States or go to Mexico with the rest of his family.

"It's been a very hard decision," Schulz said. "He was going to stay here, but just in the last couple of days he changed his mind after seeing how hard it's been on his mom."

Adrian said he can read but not write in Spanish, adding he has not visited Mexico in "a long time."

"I'm going to miss my friends," he said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact Kristina Peterson at kpeterson@ dailynewsgroup.com.

http://origin.mercurynews.com/localnews ... ci_5589705
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Related Story: Actually the Sob Story

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... light=palo

Looks like they had plenty of time to sell some of their crap to pay for travel for their children. Instead, they messed around fighting deportation. WAAAAAAAAAA Bunch of irresponsible people.

They all need to pack their bags and leave before they run out of good willed people that will give their money to the foolish.

Dixie

I guess they haven't gotten their Bank of America charge yet or they could have purchased the kid's plane tickets themselves.

Wonder how much money they've sent back to mexico over all these years?

The family appealed the decision but missed a court appearance - saying their lawyer, whom they later learned had been disbarred in 2002, had told them not to worry and that everything was on track - and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the case in 2005.

Hey I can beleive that, you know with the illegal crossing of our border, having children here illegally, taking American jobs they were not entitled to, I can believe it is all the fault of some wayward lawyer and not just them making more excuses why they sidesteped doing the right things.

Glad to see the family will get to stay together. Maybe we need to start a fund for all of the families facing deportations, so they too can stay together, you know, show the OBLer's our humanitarian side!!

This story reminds me of what Bill O'Reilly pointed out in his talk radio show this morning. How the msm loves to print sob stories about illegals, however, they shy away from the dangerous illegals who do harm to American citizens.

These criminal families, need to put some money back NOW for their fines and for there children buss tickets with them

We do a drill around here for tornados and fires, these people need to do the same for Ice comings.
Just like this.

1. Stay together
2. Be nice
3. Give your names
4. Tell the truth (it goes faster)
5. Make sure you’ve got the tickets
6. Put on your seat belts.
7. Sit down and shut up
8. We cant ever go back illegally
9. It’s no so bad where we came from.
10. It’s our turn to go home Deal with it.