Thread: Illegals despair awaiting reform

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/03/26/news_ ... awai.shtml

While Congress works toward an overhaul and considers a guest worker program, some fear their lives are being torn apart.

By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN, Times Staff Writer
Published March 26, 2006

TAMPA - Seven-year-old Angel Gutierrez never heard of Senate bills or something adults call "comprehensive immigration reform."

But Angel knows his dad never comes to his baseball practices anymore. At home, Angel runs to the window when a car passes, hoping maybe it's him.

Last week, Angel's mom found a sitter and boarded a plane for Washington, D.C., with two Dade City women and a lawyer. They joined hundreds from across the country to lobby members of Congress.

With lawmakers edging closer to a showdown on the most comprehensive overhaul of immigration policy in two decades, the immigrants tried to convey how current U.S. policies fracture families.

At stake: what to do with an estimated 12-million illegal immigrants and the hundreds of thousands more who arrive each year. The Senate Judiciary Committee faces a deadline today to send a bill to the Senate. It is considering a guest worker program that could grant temporary work visas to immigrants.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said if the committee doesn't meet deadline, he planned to push his own bill, which would tighten borders and punish employers who hire illegal immigrants. Democrats threatened to filibuster Frist's bill. President Bush, who backed temporary work visas, pleaded Thursday for civility.

Away from the rhetoric, Angel grows up without his dad. Victor Gutierrez, an illegal immigrant, was deported last year to Mexico, said wife Melissa, a U.S. citizen.

Jack Martin, special projects director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said Melissa Gutierrez and others like her create their own problems.

"One would hope at the time they got married that they did so with their eyes open, recognizing the fact who they were marrying could be deported at any time and presumably they would be prepared to go back with them," he said.

Critics of a guest worker program called it an amnesty ruse for people who violated borders. They feared that the middle class would lose jobs to immigrants willing to work for less pay.

Instead, the critics argued, the federal government needs to put more money into the Border Patrol and get serious about punishing employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

Supporters of a guest worker program painted a different reality: Americans won't take certain agricultural and service jobs. And if businesses offered the salaries that Americans would demand, they could not compete with cheaper imports.

All agreed that the system needs to change. Jobs attract immigrants who, after crossing a more heavily guarded and thug-plagued border than years ago, plant roots here rather than risk crossing back and forth. And when they stay, they are likely to bring families or start new ones. They can live for years under the radar - unless they mess up.

Melissa Gutierrez, 24, was a teenager when she and her husband met in Ocala. She became pregnant, and the two decided to marry.

"I had no idea about this immigration stuff," said Melissa Gutierrez, who handles medical billing for an oncology center in Ocala.

She thought that because Victor was marrying an American citizen, he would be fine.

Years passed while they worked and saved to hire a lawyer to get Victor's green card.

But one night, he got pulled over and was accused of drunken driving. For many people, that means a suspended license. For Victor, it meant deportation. He was sent to Mexico in 2002. Melissa filed paperwork to get him a visa.

Months passed with no reply. Angel started kindergarten. Christmas neared.

Her husband, impatient and desperate to see his family, crossed the border illegally. Then he was caught speeding and deported again in June.

The law blocks his legal return for at least 10 years. Melissa won't move to Mexico because neither she nor Angel speaks Spanish, and Victor couldn't support them there.

She told Victor not to tell her if he planned another trip back. She heard about a proposed bill that would criminally charge people who helped illegal immigrants.

"Do you want to have your husband here and be a family?" she said. "Or, God forbid, they pick you and your husband up. And where does that leave your child?"

Karrie Mendoza of Dade City met her husband two years ago while both worked at Hungry Howie's Pizza. Evaristo Mendoza also worked in the fields when not delivering pizza. They married last year and filed paperwork for his green card. The application was pending.

Last month, after the two argued in a parking lot, police arrested Evaristo on a domestic violence charge. Karrie refused to press charges, but her husband was put in immigration detention in Bradenton. She feared that if he is deported before her attorney can get him out, he will be blocked from coming back for 10 years.

Karrie, 28, is three months pregnant. The two also have three children each from other relationships. Trying to support them on her own, Karrie sold a truck and found a smaller apartment. She refused to accept government assistance but wondered how long she can make it without him.

"They don't want these illegals to be a debt to society," she said, "but they are making American families married to them become a debt to society."

Felicitas Morales, 20, is a junior at Saint Leo University in Pasco County.

There, she pursues a double major in international studies and international business. Since age 13, she has been active in youth groups.

But she is also an illegal immigrant. Morales was brought from Mexico age 2. Her parents and siblings worked in the fields around Dade City. She thrived in school.

Her grandfather, a U.S. citizen, applied to sponsor the family for their green cards. He died, so the application was thrown out.

And like thousands of children across the country, she was stuck. Without a Social Security number, she couldn't qualify for federally backed student loans or college scholarships.

Morales was lucky. Saint Leo admitted her with a private scholarship. She thought by now that Congress would have passed the DREAM Act, granting residency to U.S. high school graduates who complete postsecondary educational programs.

So far, she has been wrong. And if lawmakers don't make changes for students like her, she will soon hold a bachelor's degree in a country that won't give her a job, legally.

As she planned to fly to Washington, Morales told her attorney that she might go to Mexico to get her master's degree if a reform bill doesn't help her.

She has no idea how much it would cost, how she would pay for it, where she would live.

There's one other consideration, said her attorney, John Ovink. She wouldn't see her family and friends in Dade City again for a long time.

"It's not forever," he said as she stared at him. "Just for 10 years."
Saundra Amrhein can be reached at amrhein@sptimes.com or 813 661-2441.

Anybody got any crying-towels left?

Hmmm let's see,speeding, drunk driving and domestic violence and they want a free ride to US Citizenship.

Illegals should be afraid to walk the streets. After all, they’re criminals, hence the term ILLEGAL!!

Why is it they never interview MS-13 members or illegals working under the table while having 16 anchor babies on welfare? Why no stories on the numbers of DUI crashes and Hit & Run accidents? Why no stories on illegals who refuse to learn English, waving the Mexican flag and chanting for us gringos to go back to Europe? Why is it we never see stories of the tens of thousands of illegals in jails and prisons, convicted of heinous and brutal crimes after having been deported multiple times? Why no stories on the costs of welfare, housing subsidies, education, incarceration, healthcare, etc. that illegals foist on taxpayers? Why no stories on the bankrupted hospitals, over crowded and failing schools, packed courts and prisons?

I

llegals should be afraid to walk the streets. After all, they’re criminals, hence the term ILLEGAL!!

Why is it they never interview MS-13 members or illegals working under the table while having 16 anchor babies on welfare? Why no stories on the numbers of DUI crashes and Hit & Run accidents? Why no stories on illegals who refuse to learn English, waving the Mexican flag and chanting for us gringos to go back to Europe? Why is it we never see stories of the tens of thousands of illegals in jails and prisons, convicted of heinous and brutal crimes after having been deported multiple times? Why no stories on the costs of welfare, housing subsidies, education, incarceration, healthcare, etc. that illegals foist on taxpayers? Why no stories on the bankrupted hospitals, over crowded and failing schools, packed courts and prisons?

Because that would run counter to their agenda. Even when you do see such stories they always downplay the illegals impacts on things and say that "it's difficult to quantify" or some other nonsense.