Thread: Young Illegal Immigrant Apparently on Lam

Young Illegal Immigrant Apparently on Lam

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/ ... SECTION=US

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- An illegal immigrant found living in a suburban high school last year, prompting tremendous sympathy among students, is apparently on the lam after failing to board a plane back to Mexico in January.

A judge had ordered Francisco Javier Serrano, 22, to leave the United States because he was here illegally.

On Jan. 5, he hugged supporters at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and walked toward the security screeners, saying it was "the right thing" for him to go back to Mexico.

But his plane ticket was never used and he hasn't been seen since by friends in Minnesota or family in Mexico.

Now Serrano is damaging any chance he had of ever living here legally, said his attorney, Herbert Ignabugo. "He is now a fugitive from the law," Ignabugo said.

In January 2005, a custodian at Apple Valley High School discovered Serrano sleeping in the school's auditorium. Serrano, who was arrested on trespassing charges, said he'd been sleeping there three weeks because he needed a warm place to stay.

Students at the high school handed out "Free Francisco" T-shirts, while Basim Sabri, a Minneapolis developer serving a federal prison term for his own brushes with the law, gave Serrano a place to live and paid his expenses.

Ignabugo said Serrano was hesitant to return to Mexico, but had been hoping to obtain a student visa and return to study engineering in Minneapolis.

Now Serrano is damaging any chance he had of ever living here legally, said his attorney, Herbert Ignabugo.

I doubt it.

He'll probably be invited to the White House.

http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpr ... 874226.htm

Posted on Wed, Feb. 15, 2006


Serrano debacle stuns
Mexican community flummoxed by national's actions
BY FREDERICK MELO
Pioneer Press

Immigration authorities once escorted Abraham Rivera onto a plane, forcing him to return to his native Mexico. After his deportation, Rivera followed lawful procedures to re-enter the United States and take up residence in St. Paul.

Given his own history, the 35-year-old sheet-metal worker shares the bewildered amusement of many in the Mexican community after hearing the strange odyssey of his countryman Francisco Javier Silva-Serrano.

With a wealthy benefactor and high-profile attorney offering to help him obtain a student visa to re-enter the country, Serrano was ordered last year to leave the United States. It's now believed he may have never left.

The question many Mexican nationals would like to ask him is why.

For most undocumented immigrants, "It's easy to hide because nobody knows you," said Rivera, as he left Don Panchos Bakery on St. Paul's West Side with a bagful of sweet breads. "Somebody like this kid, he's all over the news. Your picture's on TV. You'll never hide like that."

Other Mexican nationals and immigration experts aren't so sure. They say Serrano's chances of remaining under the radar of immigration authorities are good, provided he leaves Minnesota for a larger Latino community, like Los Angeles or New York, where he can blend in.

"I don't think it will be hard for him," said Maria Marquina, who shared a chuckle with her elderly mother upon hearing of Serrano's apparent ruse. "A lot of people come here alone to work. He could be in another state."

"Usually, it's not very difficult to stay underground as long as someone behaves themselves and has very little contact with law enforcement," said Jared Erdmann, research director for HACER, a Latino public policy group in Minneapolis.

Tim Counts, a spokesman with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Serrano joins 450,000 fugitives in the country who have absconded from deportation proceedings. Like them, his name will be entered into an FBI database commonly checked by law enforcement officials.

But ICE has limited resources to spare for low-level lawbreakers. Counts said his office, based in Bloomington, is assembling its first Fugitive Operation Team, which will be dedicated exclusively to the task of finding absconders. But the agents will have their hands full with responsibility for a five-state area.

"Like any law enforcement agency, we prioritize," Counts said. "Our first priority is anything having to do with national security, like terrorism." The next target would be criminal aliens, such as foreign-born gang members and child sexual predators.

But the media attention likely will bump up his importance in the eyes of authorities, said John Keller, executive director of the Immigrant Law Center in St. Paul. Even for undocumented immigrants with falsified identification papers, life outside the law is hardly easy.

"You're forced underground, just like anyone who enters illegally," Keller said. "You are especially fearful of contact with authority. You are always very hesitant or reluctant to speak up at work. You're even subject to being taken advantage of within the immigrant community. You just keep a low profile."

The 22-year-old Serrano made national headlines in early 2005 after masquerading as a student at Apple Valley High School for lack of a better place to stay. After bailing him out of jail, a wealthy developer provided him with a Minneapolis apartment and a high-profile immigration attorney, and offered to pay his college tuition.

The fairy tale soon hit road bumps. Serrano, who was in the U.S. on an expired tourist visa, was ordered by immigration authorities last year to return to Mexico by Jan. 5 or face deportation. But his chances at the life he yearned for in America weren't quite dashed: His attorney planned to join him in Mexico on Feb. 1 and help him apply for a student visa at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.

But those dreams, too, may be out of reach. Serrano's attorney, Herbert Igbanugo, said he once stood a good chance of persuading authorities to waive the 10-year barrier Serrano faced for re-entering the country. A waiver, decided on a case-by-case basis by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, now will be especially difficult to obtain.

"Next time he pops up, he better pop up in Mexico or in Canada, anywhere outside the U.S. That will bode well for him," said Igbanugo, who represented Serrano for free.

"He decided his own fate by doing this," said Rochelle Barrett, whose husband, Basim Sabri, paid for Serrano's living expenses over the past year. Sabri is in federal prison in connection with a bribery scandal and is unlikely to extend the offer of funding Serrano's schooling again, Barrett said.

Joe Navejas, a union organizer from Faribault, felt Serrano had thrown away his best shot. "How come the guy ran away then, if there's a lot of people trying to help you out? You come to this country to better yourself, and you run away. What kind of message are you giving? Especially if you're Latino, what is the public going to think of us?"

Frederick Melo can be reached at fmelo@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-2172