Thread: IA-Mother, two kids contemplate eventual return to Guatemala

Mother, two kids contemplate eventual return to Guatemala
By NIGEL DUARA • nduara@dmreg.com • July 16, 2008


Postville, Ia. — When Irma Hernándes lies to her children, she does it modestly.

She tells them things will be fine, that school will be easy, that they'll make new friends.

When Hernándes and her children return to Guatemala — and they almost surely will — they will be going back to a country Hernándes left four years ago for a better life in the United States.

She came here illegally, as did at least 388 other workers at the Agriprocessors Inc. meatpacking plant. She was caught in the poultry section with her husband in a raid on May 12.




He was detained, processed and sentenced to five months in jail.

She was released on humanitarian grounds — she had to care for her children, ages 9 and 11.

Now, she wears a tracking bracelet on her ankle, one of 42 women and three men who were released and still await their fate.

Hernándes is trapped between a federal agency that wants her out of the country and prosecutors who may want to use her as a witness against Agriprocessors.

So, she waits.

She lives in a modern A-frame in Postville that costs her $700 a month.

She doesn't have much money. What little she and her husband saved went to immediate costs after the raid.

That ran out quickly, and now she's reliant on the local Catholic church to pay for her rent and utilities.

She's had to cut costs — July is the last month she'll have cable, a luxury she can no longer afford.

Her days are pretty boring, she said in Spanish. There's Spanish-language television, the occasional trip to the church and her friend Lilia Ordoñes, who was also arrested in the raid.

They charge their bracelets together on Hernándes' couch. Ordoñes' 1-year-old daughter toddles through the living room and cries when no one pays attention to her.

Hernándes said there are lots of advantages to staying in America, even while wearing a tracking device. She feels safe here, she said.

Her two children, who have four years of American schooling each, have become accustomed to public pools in summer and snowball fights in winter.

She tells them that when they return to Guatemala, things will be fine.

She said she knows it's a lie.

They'll have to start over, in another school system, learning in another language, albeit their native one. "Sometimes I feel proud because they didn't get me for robbing or murdering," she said. "They got me for working."

Her husband is in Louisiana, serving a five-month sentence. She's spoken to him by phone, but said the charges came back at $4 a minute, another cost she can't afford.

"He said, don't worry about the kids, they'll be OK," Hernándes said. "I think he's embarrassed because he can't take care of them from jail."

The children, whom she declined to name, are divided. The older one, 11, said he'll return with her to Guatemala. The younger one, 9, insists he'll stay in Iowa.

"He said he'll wait here," she said. "To wait for his father."




http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/p ... /807160374

boo hoo

[quote="FedUpinFarmersBranch"]Mother, two kids contemplate eventual return to Guatemala
By NIGEL DUARA • nduara@dmreg.com • July 16, 2008


Postville, Ia. — When Irma Hernándes lies to her children, she does it modestly.

She tells them things will be fine, that school will be easy, that they'll make new friends.


Sorry, but there are many American citizen parents who, put out of work by IAs have had to lie to their children too. They have had to assure their children that everything will be just fine as they face foreclosure or eviction, can no longer afford utility bills, as enough food to eat disappears from tables.

Further, how dare this woman.....this criminal.......talk about having to lie to her children? Honesty and moral character are not character traits neither she, nor her criminal husband, possess.


Hernándes is trapped between a federal agency that wants her out of the country and prosecutors who may want to use her as a witness against Agriprocessors.

LOLOL.....that may be so, but has she ever considered that this could also be because they fully intend to throw these women in jail to serve sentences on identity theft charges as well, once their "better halves" are released and can take of the children who will be deported right along with them?

Release on "humanatarian grounds" does not equate to escaping justice for your crimes.

So, she waits.

Is she complaining? I'm sure that any time she does not like the current arrangements, it can be arranged for her to be removed to a detention facility.

She's had to cut costs — July is the last month she'll have cable, a luxury she can no longer afford.

<sniff> <sob> <drip> I haven't heard anything quite so tragic and sad in ages My heart is just bleeding over here..........

They'll have to start over, in another school system, learning in another language, albeit their native one. "Sometimes I feel proud because they didn't get me for robbing or murdering," she said. "They got me for working."

And just who is this woman trying to kid? She does not speak a lick of English and it is unlikely that her husband does either. It is guaranteed that her children speak, almost exclusively, Spanish and were being taught in Spanish at school.

I just love it how illegal aliens pound their chests with national pride, refusing to assimilate, not permitting it in their children, and then, when busted and facing deportation, try to make themselves and their offspring out as the epitome of attempting to fit in here.

"He said, don't worry about the kids, they'll be OK," Hernándes said. "I think he's embarrassed because he can't take care of them from jail."

He should be embarassed and NOT because he can't take care of his kids but because he is a liar and a thief......a criminal.....who has brought shame upon his children, has had them living one big lie for the past four years, and is 100% responsible for any anguish this situation is causing his children now.

The children, whom she declined to name, are divided. The older one, 11, said he'll return with her to Guatemala. The younger one, 9, insists he'll stay in Iowa.

"He said he'll wait here," she said. "To wait for his father."

Well, let's not lie to the boy shall we "Mom"? Make sure you tell him the truth.......... that he is also an illegal alien in this country so cannot stay behind when you leave and that it will do no good for him to wait for his father, who will go right from jail to an ICE facility to await the next deportation flight out of here.

Don't hurt him anymore than you already have.