Thread: Deportation to break up Beaverton family

Family values heh Senor Jorge Bush?

Deportation, to a life unknown (Here is an update to this sad story, guess Ms. Bermudez wants to make sure all Oregonians feel so bad about wanting immigration laws enforced!!)

Denied - The fight for asylum ends when a mother returns to a country that's strange to her two children

Thursday, October 12, 2006

ESMERALDA BERMUDEZ

The Oregonian

ESCUINTLA, Guatemala -- Out of options for staying in the United States, three members of a Beaverton family returned to their Guatemalan hometown Wednesday evening.

Irma Diaz and her two oldest children, 21-year-old Luis Jr. and 20-year-old Monica, left Portland at midnight Tuesday, the exact deadline set by federal immigration officials for them to be deported. The departure marked the end to the family's decadelong battle for political asylum.

During a tearful goodbye at Portland International Airport, the Diazes left behind father Luis Sr., who is appealing his request for political asylum, and Jennifer, an 11-year-old daughter who is a U.S. citizen.

"You have to be the man of the house, you hear?" Luis Sr. told his 21-year-old son as he hugged him goodbye. "People are going to mess with you, but you have to stay out of trouble."

Luis Sr. and Jennifer plan to remain in Oregon until his appeal is decided.

Guided by escorts during the 17-hour trip, the mother and children tried to disguise their concerns with good-natured jokes. But the laughter ended as the family entered Guatemala City on their way to their rural hometown of Escuintla.

With a mix of nostalgia and fear, Irma Diaz returned to the country she left behind to join her husband in Oregon more than a decade earlier.

In 1991, Luis Diaz Sr. left his family in Guatemala after receiving threats for organizing a union at a paper mill. Once in Hillsboro, he applied for political asylum and was granted a work permit. When his application had not been processed by 1993, Irma set out illegally to join her husband, with Luis Jr. and Monica.

Upon arrival she filed separately for political asylum for herself and the two older children. In 1997, their request was denied, but they stayed waiting for federal authorities to rule on Luis Diaz Sr.'s claim.

This year, his request was denied by an asylum officer who found no evidence of past persecution or a well-grounded fear of future persecution based on Diaz's union activities. His appeal is expected to take months, said Tilman Hasche, the family's attorney.

On Wednesday afternoon, Irma and her two older children arrived in a world starkly different from Oregon. They were greeted by a land of colorful storefronts, where the smell of diesel fuel fouls the air and haphazard drivers flood the roads.

The Diaz children, who arrived in Oregon when they were in elementary school, remembered little of the country.

Luis Jr. was taken aback by the sights, saying he had seen nothing like it.

When a car back-fired, Monica screamed in the back of a van crowded with her grandmothers and a grandfather. The 20-year-old who graduated with her brother from Westview High School gave special attention to the armed soldiers gathering on street corners and idling about Guatemala City, the capital.

"They need to change some rules, make new laws, remodel everything," Monica said. "Oh, my God."

Masking her own fear, her mother responded, "Don't get scared. This is just the beginning."

Esmeralda Bermudez: 503-221-4388; ebermudez@news.oregonian.com

Now go to the U.S. Embassy and do it RIGHT this time! But be prepared to wait awhile, there's 35 million illegals in your way. I'll bet you wish we didn't have this illegal immigration problem NOW, don't you? Help your cause by telling your NEW neighbors to "STAY HOME!!!", as well.

Yep, bet they are now wishing there were not so many in their way, that's so true.

The Oregonian will beat this story into the ground as it is voting time and the libs want to keep Governor Ted Kolonscopy (Kulongoski) over the his Republican counterpart, Ron Saxton. There is also some concern from Saxtons campaign about the Constitution Candidate, Mary Starrett. I fear though that she has little chance as she has little campaign funds and little coverage right now.

Yes sir, The Oregonian loves these stories as it promotes more Portland and Eugene style bleeding hearts and anarchists to come out of the woodwork.

It is not about "breaking up" a family. I am so sick of hearing that. All family members here illegally should be deported. Those, if any who are LEGAL, should choose to keep the family together and go home with the deportees.

Originally Posted by AmericanElizabeth

Yes sir, The Oregonian loves these stories as it promotes more Portland and Eugene style bleeding hearts and anarchists to come out of the woodwork.

I'm just SO GLAD that I LEFT! Don't get me wrong, you KNOW I love that country. The Gorge, all the falls, the forests, the rivers, absolutely BEAUTIFUL!

Let me know when the Americans are back in control, won't you?

We love it here too, but getting so sick of the baloney that goes on here, and we ourselves have been on PC Portland style burnout.

We too have thought of moving too, but with the job market the way it is, we do not feel we have many choices in either staying or going.

As for the liberals, I do not forsee any time soon that they will go away, but I do have hope that if we can get Ron Saxton voted in (or Mary Starrett!!) then they will have a good run for their money. However my brother (who has the misfortune of living in Eugene) said that it will make them all more vocal and more obnoxious with a Republican governor.

Who knows, all I know is I wish to see them deported too and make Oregon what it used to be, a state full of decent, hardworking Americans with common sense and morals. I miss that of the Northwest, those generations are all passing away and we are being left with the ones who want it to be an anything goes society.