Thread: An Illegal Immigrant's Legal Paradox

An Illegal Immigrant's Legal Paradox
Paying Child Support Means Breaking the Law

By Theresa Vargas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 19, 2008; Page B01

The way Jaime R. Villagran tells it, to avoid going to jail, he would have had to break one law to obey another.

The Guatemalan native acknowledged that he owed more than $11,000 in child support when he appeared last month in Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court. But to pay it, Villagran told the judge, he would have to work illegally because he was awaiting permanent residency and work authorization from the U.S. government. He refused to do that.

"Were I to go to work and get caught, then what? I would have nothing," Villagran, 33, of Prince William County, said in the Fairfax jail. "If they deported me, there are two kids with no dad, no money. Who's going to be paying for what they need in the future?"

With the immigration debate at a roar nationally, Villagran's case illustrates a moral and legal quandary. Locally, groups that oppose illegal immigration want the government to crack down on those in the country illegally and to punish employers who hire them. But many immigrants live in a complicated state of limbo. Physically but not legally in the United States, they are bound by federal and local laws, even when the two collide.

"You try to do the right thing, and it ends up being the wrong thing," Villagran said.

On March 20, he was ordered to serve 90 days in jail for civil contempt.

Villagran's fear of deportation is hardly groundless. This month, federal immigration authorities raided a Loudoun County resort, detaining 59 foreign-born workers. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said in a statement that companies using "cheap, illegal alien labor as a business model should be on notice that ICE is dramatically enhancing its enforcement efforts." On March 24, authorities also raided a Prince William construction site, detaining 34 suspected illegal immigrants from Latin America. Ernestine Fobbs, an ICE spokeswoman, said any immigrant caught working without authorization is subject to a hearing at which a judge decides whether deportation is warranted.

"It's a case-by-case basis," Fobbs said, adding that it's "an honorable person who says, 'I don't want to work without authorization.' "

Kay Cullen, a spokeswoman for the National Child Support Enforcement Association, based in Silver Spring, said growth in the Hispanic immigrant population is changing caseloads nationally. Enforcement agencies, she said, recognize the need to reach out to the immigrant community.

Cullen said she had not heard of anyone else presenting an argument similar to Villagran's in court. It is more common, she said, for immigrants to say they misunderstood or feared the child support system.

"This is different," Cullen said. "It's a very logical argument."

Whether the argument is ethical is another question, she added.

"It is a moral obligation to take care of your children," she said. "I think these children deserve the emotional and financial support of both parents, whether or not those parents live together," she said.

In Virginia, one child in four depends on child support, said Phyllis Sisk, assistant director of the Division of Child Support Enforcement in the Virginia Department of Social Services. As of February, Sisk said, the division was handling 359,000 cases, involving 484,000 children who are owed more than $2.4 billion.

Sisk said officials never ask about citizenship or immigration status because any person who owes child support is required to pay. "We stress that of paramount importance is the child, that both parents have a financial obligation to their children," she said.

She said officials aim to collect through the "least invasive, least intrusive" action possible. "The bottom line is, we want to get the financial support for the children," she said. "We're not trying to put people in jail. That's one of the last things we do."

Villagran said he had hoped the state would recognize that he paid child support for years to the mother of his two children, 9 and 13. It's just that he hit "a gap" in life, he said.

Villagran said he entered the United States illegally with his brother when he was 14, crossing the border near Tijuana en route to joining his mother and father in Virginia. Villagran said that he dropped out of high school and obtained a work visa when he was about 18 and that he sold mattresses for years before taking a job refinishing metal.

Court records show Villagran paid $500 a month consistently from November 2001 until fall 2005. About that time, he injured a knee while working, according to records from a workers' compensation claim he filed.

In pain, out of a job and awaiting a settlement, Villagran said he made a crucial mistake: He allowed his work permit to expire.

Villagran said he moved back into his mother's Dale City home as he waited for a $6,000 workers' compensation settlement. He said he had planned to use the money to help pay child support and a lawyer who was completing his immigration paperwork. Court documents show that $3,900 was to go directly to child support and the rest, $2,100, to Villagran.

"It's not that I don't want to work," Villagran said. "They are my daughters. Once I get my work permit, if they want to take the entire check and leave me with $50, I'm fine with it. Even $25."

But he said he will not stand at the 7-Eleven in Woodbridge, among day laborers who just arrived in the country, and risk a secure future for the sake of a day's pay.

"I'm trying to be here for my kids," he said. "I'm trying to be here until they grow up."

If he gets his work permit, he said, he would like to sell cars or houses.

"These are doors of opportunities when you have your papers," Villagran said. Without them, he said, he would remain in fear, "waiting for immigration [authorities] to crash through."

Villagran's court-appointed lawyer, Gary M. Greenbaum, said the entire workers' compensation payment will go toward child support. But that did not change the judge's decision to send Villagran to jail. The only way Villagran can get out in less than three months is to pay the full amount owed, $11,291, a figure that rises every month.

Calls to Judge Helen F. Leiner were not returned.

"It's a Catch-22," Greenbaum said. "What troubles me is this guy intends to work as soon as he's legally entitled to do it. He's trying to do this the right way and make a life here."

Greenbaum said: "Adding insult to injury," Leiner authorized his client to take part in a work-release program.

Villagran, of course, is not eligible.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... cmoduletmv

Another liberal illegal alien sob story from WaPo.

"It is a moral obligation to take care of your children," she said. "I think these children deserve the emotional and financial support of both parents, whether or not those parents live together," she said.

It's also a legal obligation. Wasn't anyone fault but his own that he let his permit expire and he had time to get a lawyer and go before a child support judge to prove his financial and physical change and make another arrangement....like a percentage of his settlement when he gets it. We all live under the pressure of demands with everyone waiting to jump the second you "slide".

Villagran said he entered the United States illegally with his brother when he was 14, crossing the border near Tijuana en route to joining his mother and father in Virginia. Villagran said that he dropped out of high school and obtained a work visa when he was about 18 and that he sold mattresses for years before taking a job refinishing metal.

OK so these LOVING parents left their kids in Guatemala to come to the states. Oh OH where's the family values? So he gets a work visa. How did he get that if he is already here illegally? IF it is legal fine, but the starting point is ILLEGAL. Check the parents status too.

Another point. How do you file for worker's comp if you don't have a SS#?

I don't know. How does someone who entered this country illegally, who then dropped out of high school, get a valid work permit?

This guy enters this country illegally, allows a workers visa to expire, and then wants us to believe he's this wonderful, upstanding citizen who refuses to work because he might break some law that will lead to his deportation?

Whatever...

There are still ways of getting sponsored for a legal permit by famly or an employer if you have immigrated illegally. They have raised the bar and it is harder to do so now than it was back in the seventies. Most employers and family members do not wish to go to the trouble or are insufficiently commited to take those steps. It is clear that Villagran had such a sponsorship but lost it when he had stopped working. He should have kept current on his immigration paper work but I can feel some sympathy.

Originally Posted by Richard

There are still ways of getting sponsored for a legal permit by famly or an employer if you have immigrated illegally. They have raised the bar and it is harder to do so now than it was back in the seventies. Most employers and family members do not wish to go to the trouble or are insufficiently commited to take those steps. It is clear that Villagran had such a sponsorship but lost it when he had stopped working. He should have kept current on his immigration paper work but I can feel some sympathy.

Sorry, I do not see how it was "clear" from the facts presented that any sort of "sponsorship" was obtained other than this guy had a work visa.

Someone may have sponsored him, but that would have to be an assumption as the facts are ambigious as to any " sponsorship" this guy may or may not have had. I would have to believe there are other ways in which to obtain a work visa other than an employer sponsoring some illegal.