Thread: 'I think I might be a citizen'

Article published Aug 5, 2007
'I think I might be a citizen'
Law had quietly altered immigration status in 2001.
http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pb ... 5012/0/BIZ
JOSEPH DITS
Tribune Staff Writer

Hilario Bueno Jr. sat in prison, fully believing he'd messed up his green card.

He says a friend simply gave him a gun. The charges say he received stolen goods and carried a handgun without a license.

However you look at it, these felonies are deal breakers for those with legal permanent residency.

An immigration agent had found him in jail and promised him deportation.

Then Bueno chatted with a fellow inmate about his life and how and when his parents came from Mexico. That inmate tipped him off: Maybe, just maybe, Bueno was already a U.S. citizen.

He pitched it to the judge and failed. So Bueno was deported. His wife and son went with him, and four months later, they sneaked back into the United States.

Now, more than a year later, a local attorney says without doubt: Bueno was then and still is a citizen, thanks to immigration laws that quietly changed on the young man.But if immigration agents picked up Bueno today, they'd immediately see a current order to deport him again.

It's indicative of a complex immigration system.

Citizens -- at least those who don't realize that they are -- are deported all the time, says Chicago immigration attorney Donald Kempster, who teaches law at Kent College of Law.

Attorney Tom Nuttle of Elkhart is trying to document Bueno's citizenship and ask a judge to remove the deportation order.

"I still can't believe I'm a citizen," 23-year-old Bueno says in his Mishawaka apartment, where his 3-year-old son plays with their two new puppies.

He admits to a previous life dabbling in gangs. He talks of putting that behind him and of spending time on family, not in jail.How it happened

After his dad came to the United States in the early 1980s, Bueno says he followed with his mom and siblings a decade later.

His dad gained green cards for the family through a program in the 1980s that allowed certain people to gain legal status -- people who'd lived in the United States a certain amount of time and certain agricultural workers, Nuttle explains.

Then his dad was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in the mid-1990s through the normal procedure.

The Child Citizenship Act of 2000 had quietly made Hilario Bueno a citizen.

Going into effect Feb. 27, 2001, it made a citizen out of anyone younger than 18 who had a green card and was the child of a U.S. citizen.

"On that day, he (Bueno) woke up and was a U.S. citizen," Nuttle says.

But Bueno didn't know it.

Those aggravated felonies became a deal breaker for his green card thanks to a toughening of immigration laws in 1996, Nuttle says.At that court date while he was living in prison, Bueno says he told the judge, "I think I might be a citizen."

So the judge asked him: Are your mom and dad together?

Yes, Bueno replied.

Then you're not a citizen, the judge said, reasoning that his dad didn't have full custody of him.

Nuttle says the judge's question was an outdated test for citizenship.

Bueno says he became angry in court, figuring, "You know, get me out of here, send me back to my country."

This spring, a year after he sneaked back to the United States, he was caught driving without a license. So he started doing community service, then jail time, where immigration officials found him. That landed him in federal court in South Bend for coming back to the United States after being deported. Bueno faced a maximum of 10 years in prison or, more realistically in his case, four to five years.

Bueno persuaded Nuttle to represent him. Nuttle says he verified that Bueno was indeed a citizen and pointed it out to U.S. attorneys, who dropped the charges a couple of hours later, just before the court hearing.

Since then, Nuttle has been scratching his head over how to remove the deportation order.

"I've talked with a lot of people about this," Nuttle says.

He plans to file a motion to open the case and ask the judge to remove the order.

This spring, Bueno heard that one of his dad's friends is going through a similar drama, turning a citizen and not knowing it until much later.Going home

Bueno is lining up documents to get his passport. That, actually, is most urgent on his mind. He wants to return to Mexico with his wife and son. His grandmother there is ill. He wants to visit his brother, whose 3-year-old daughter died from leukemia in late June. The child used to play with Bueno's son.

He says he wouldn't stay more than two weeks.

When he was deported, he at first thought he'd relocate his family's lives there. He says he soon discovered: "It was too hard over there for me." Besides, most of his relatives live in Goshen.

His family in Mexico lives in a tiny rural town where it takes three hours to reach the closest hospital, he says.

His brother works the crops in Mexico, where Bueno says the long hours can earn you just $60 to $70 a week. Unlike Bueno, his brother didn't automatically become a citizen in 2001 because he was older than 18 at the time.

Immigration officials threatened to send his brother back to Mexico. So, Bueno says, his brother went to Mexico on his own four years ago and has been working ever since to gain a green card -- legally -- and return to the United States.

Staff writer Joseph Dits:
jdits@sbtinfo.com
(574) 235-6158

"It's indicative of a complex immigration system."

Instead of having an immigration system that is as complex as ours, it should be scrapped, having one that is simple.

For example, HiB visas.

1. A Company needs a worker.

2. A person answering the needs is "imported."

3. The visa is good for x number of years.

4. At the end of the term, the person is "exported."

PERIOD.

We don't need hundreds and hundreds of pages of
whats and wherefores." This is just another example of the INEFFICIENCY OF THE U.S. GOVRNMENT.

I am a little tougher -

If a company needs - but that need has to be proven.

The company can then hire an employee for maximum of 1 year. They must be made aware of our laws -

If they can drive, then let them take a test, be given a temp license for one year - non-renewable.

They must show proof of insurance on their vehicle.

Their vehicle must have inspection and registration - just like we do.

If caught DUI - forfeit any assets, including accrued income, and go home.

Any other crime, burglary, dealt with as our legal system deals with Americans and then permanent barring from entering the US.

In short, if we need workers - we need temporary workers. Temporary doesn't mean 6 years -

Then spend the money we are spending caring for illegals and subsidizing workers for corporations - and educate our own people.

There is no such thing as "simply give him a gun". He screwed up by accepting it and deverves to be deported.