Thread: Honored Orange County charity worker to be deported

www.kcal9.com

Honored Orange County charity worker to be deported for 1997 crimes
Saturday October 29, 2005
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) An award-winning charity worker was taken into federal custody and will deported to Mexico for 1997 drug- and sex-crime convictions.

Luis Armendariz, 58, of Huntington Beach, surrendered Friday to immigration authorities.

Armendariz dedicated the past seven years full-time to driving ``Jesus trucks'' to motels to provide food and clothing to the poor.

With his departure, some Orange County church groups who worked with him scrambled to revise their programs.

The Newport-Mesa-Irvine Interfaith Council canceled its annual diaper drive and will change its plans to feed the poor at Thanksgiving, said Jaimie Day, vice president of community service.

``We will redirect, but it won't be the same,'' she said. ``Luis was the one conduit who reached the very, very lowest of the income families we would service in this local area.''

Armendariz, 58, entered the United States illegally in 1966 and obtained legal residency three years later. He started successful businesses but gave up work when his second wife got cancer.

After her death in 1995, he became depressed and sank into drug addiction. He served three months in jail after pleading guilty in 1997 to using crack cocaine and having sexual contact with a 17-year-old girl.

After his release, he started his charity work, which received congressional recognition when he won a National Philanthropy Day award two years ago.

However, the convictions made him eligible to lose his residency and he was ordered deported to Mexico.

He fought the order for several years but ultimately lost.

His two teenage children will stay with one of his three grown daughters until he is settled in Mexico, Armendariz told the Orange County Register Friday.

Elizabeth Chacon, 26, said she will continue to seek a governmental pardon allowing her father to return to the U.S.

``We're all just trying to be strong, that's what he asked of us,'' she said. ``He wants us to be strong and keep fighting.''

Meanwhile he can continue his charitable endeavors south of the border where his kindness will be equally appreciated.