Thread: Wedding derailed by immigration arrest

Wedding derailed by immigration arrest
LA GRANGE | Thousands to rally for reform Thursday after groom-to-be picked up at O'Hare Airport

April 30, 2008Recommend (1)

BY MIKE THOMAS Staff Reporter mthomas@suntimes.com
It was going to be a matrimonial blowout: lots of food, scores of guests and even a mariachi band.

But two days before Fernando Lara Flores, 26, was due to wed his fiancee, Lucia Rodriguez, at St. Cletus Parish in La Grange, he was taken into custody by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at O'Hare Airport while waiting to pick up his grandmother and father. They'd flown in from Guadalajara, Mexico, for the celebration.

While Chicago passed an immigrant sanctuary ordinance in 2006, O'Hare is under federal jurisdiction. Flores is now in a McHenry County federal detention center awaiting his fate.

"He's so scared right now," says his sister, 28-year-old Monica Lara, who has talked with Flores several times by phone. "He's so negative. He says he doesn't want anything. He just wants to go back to Mexico."

Starting mid-morning Thursday, thousands of people and many immigrant rights groups are expected to rally at Union Park at Ashland and Lake before marching downtown to Federal Plaza to push for immigration law reform -- reform that could help those in binds similar to Flores'.

"Right now, since the system is still broken, we have many Fernando Laras in our nation," says activist Julie Santos of Chicago-based United Voices for United Families. "And the reality is they live in the situation of being undocumented. And we need to alert the community, because our first and foremost concern is keeping the families united."

Lara, a Lyons resident, says her brother was not a legal U.S. citizen at the time of his arrest, but that he is a hard-working, tax-paying, upstanding member of society.

The local Customs and Border Protection office declined to comment on specific cases, but public liaison officer Brett Sturgeon says the agency is just doing its job.

"We're never going to put someone in removal proceedings unless we have very, very good reason to," he says. "In other words, it's not just mere suspicion we're talking about. . . . We will never start on a case or initiate anything that we don't feel warrants a decision by an immigration judge."

That's no salve to Flores' friends and family members.

"I would like him to stay [in Chicago] because he paid for everything for his wedding," Lara says of her brother. "But if he's got to go back to Mexico, whatever. It's better.

"Everybody wants to go back to Mexico now," she adds, "because after this, we don't have to stay here."
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/9 ... 30.article

"I would like him to stay [in Chicago] because he paid for everything for his wedding," Lara says of her brother. "But if he's got to go back to Mexico, whatever. It's better.

"Everybody wants to go back to Mexico now," she adds, "because after this, we don't have to stay here."

YES! Enforcement IS working!

Yup, enforcement/attrition works, and furthermore we're supposed to feel sorry for this guy? No way.

HAVE A NICE DAY

Wasn't he deported before? I think I read that somewhere. That is why ICE was able to deport him quickly.

Also it was just in time before another anchor was born.

Also it was just in time before another anchor was born.

True..

Americans are not doing this to the families, the illegal aliens are doing it to themselves.

We didn't make them have babies, we are not asking them to come here, we don't want them to get married, we don't want their familes here... Illegals need to just go back to their homeland with their family or the one they are about to make!

Dixie

His family was already split up....Helllloooo he was picking up his grandparents from the air port....so he has family in Mexico...

"Right now, since the system is still broken , we have many Fernando Laras in our nation," says activist Julie Santos of Chicago-based United Voices for United Families. "And the reality is they live in the situation of being undocumented. And we need to alert the community, because our first and foremost concern is keeping the families united."

The system is not broken you fool it works just fine when the laws are being enforced as they are suppose to. We have laws for a reason and you can not change them to satisfy everyone's needs that is the point of laws!

Earlier article at

http://www.alipac.us/ftopic-113446-0.html[b][/b]