Thread: Immigrant fights to stay after arrest

http://www.gazetteextra.com/wwarrests_tinoco082406.asp

Immigrant fights to stay after arrest

(Published Thursday, August 24, 2006 11:01:25 AM CDT)


By Stacy Vogel
Gazette Staff

WHITEWATER-In her mind, Olivia Tinoco has rehearsed a list of reasons to offer a judge when he asks her why she should be able to stay in the country despite her illegal status:

-- She wants a better life for her five children, two of whom are U.S. citizens.

-- She has no criminal record.

-- She works hard to support her family and care for them as a single mother.

But Tinoco came very close to signing that chance away, and she still is not sure if she will get her day in court.

Tinoco spent 10 days in jail after the Aug. 8 raid at Star Packaging. Authorities told her she had to provide two things before being released, she said: $5,000 bond and a signed form saying she would return to Mexico.

Tinoco signed the form, and her brother raised money for the bond.

Officials told Tinoco she would spend six more months in jail if she didn't sign the form, she told The Janesville Gazette.

"I didn't want to stay in jail," she said in Spanish. "My kids were here without me."

On Tuesday, Tinoco showed up at the office of Belem Gonzalez-Regan, director of the YWCA Hispanic Outreach Program in Janesville. She wanted help finding a lawyer who could help her gain amnesty.

Gonzalez-Regan went through the form that Tinoco had signed in jail, explaining it as she went. She said Tinoco was shocked when she heard that she had waived her right to a lawyer, a hearing and application for "any relief for removal including, but not limited to, voluntary departure, asylum, adjustment of status … or any other possible relief under the Immigration and Nationality Act."

"She said, 'That's not true. I didn't waive my rights; this wasn't explained to me,'" Gonzalez-Regan said.

But by the time she got out of jail, the form was no longer valid, said Gail Montenegro, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Apparently, Tinoco signed a stipulated removal form but later changed her mind, and immigration officials allowed her to back out, Montenegro said.

If the form were still valid, Tinoco would not have been released on bond.

"Normally if you sign a stipulated order, they keep you in custody, and deportment is imminent," Montenegro said. "It's usually for people who want to go back and want to get out of custody and admit that they are here illegally and have nothing going for them here."

But it remains unclear whether the form that Tinoco signed was a stipulated removal request in the first place. Under the terms of a stipulated removal, the immigrant would voluntarily leave the country and would be eligible to try to return legally, said Bernard Trujillo, an immigration law expert at the University of Wisconsin Law School in Madison.

The form that Tinoco signed states that she will not apply for voluntary departure status and that she understands that she can't legally return for 10 years.

"It's clearly not a voluntary departure," Trujillo said. "It sounds like an expedited removal."

The expedited removal process, he explained, was established in 1996 to send those caught in the act of crossing the border back as quickly as possible. Last summer, it was expanded to include immigrants who have been in the country a long time.

It offers "no procedure, basically, no rights at all," Trujillo said.

One item in the form that Tinoco signed states that the document was read and explained to her in Spanish, but Tinoco told Gonzalez-Regan that the translator provided did not speak fluent Spanish.

"I don't think she knew what she was signing," Gonzalez-Regan said.

But that's unlikely, Montenegro said.

Representatives from the Mexican Consulate went to Dodge County, where the prisoners were being held, she said. The representatives interviewed the prisoners, offered them the chance to sign stipulated removal forms and gave a list of those who wanted them to ICE, she said.

"There couldn't have been any translation issues," she said. "We didn't ask each individual if they wanted it; we were provided with a list of the aliens who had wanted it, and that list was provided from the Mexican Consulate."

The confusion doesn't surprise Trujillo, he said.

"You're getting a view of how poorly the immigration deportation system works on the ground," he said.

Getting out of jail is a small victory for Tinoco. She does not want to go back to Mexico after nine years in the United States, and neither do her children, who range in age from 3 to 14, she said.

The youngest two are American citizens, but she said she would take them with her to avoid splitting up the family. She's afraid they will not retain their English skills back in Mexico and will have difficulty returning here.

She hopes to find a lawyer who will convince an immigration judge to give her amnesty for at least a year. By then, she said, the government may establish a guest worker program that would allow her to stay indefinitely.

"I want to say to the immigration people, we don't come to make trouble," she said. "We come to work.

"We come because we have to for our children."

"I want to say to the immigration people, we don't come to make trouble," she said. "We come to work.

You come to this country to steal jobs and public benefits from Americans and legal immigrants.

"We come because we have to for our children."

You come to steal my childrens future. Get the hell out of my country!

She has only the right to humane treatment and a kind and gentle ride back to Mexico.

She is a single mother that supports 5 children on probably less than 10 bucks an hour? Wow, she must cut a lot of coupons, eh?

She hopes to find a lawyer who will convince an immigration judge to give her amnesty for at least a year. By then, she said, the government may establish a guest worker program that would allow her to stay indefinitely.

I am beginning to wonder just how many of these year longs stays of deportation are being granted.

"I didn't want to stay in jail," she said in Spanish. "My kids were here without me."

Once again, I ask the age old question, where is the father?

Once again, I ask the age old question, where is the father?

That would be us taxpayers by default. The burro will continue to eat as long as we hold the feedsack.

Originally Posted by legal4mykidsfuture

"I want to say to the immigration people, we don't come to make trouble," she said. "We come to work.

You come to this country to steal jobs and public benefits from Americans and legal immigrants.

The potential for economic gain is a primary motivation in the majority of all criminal acts.

"You're getting a view of how poorly the immigration deportation system works on the ground," he said.

Nope, that's the law biting a lawbreaker in the hiney. Welcome to the "real" America. Even though she's now claiming she didn't understand it, it's all on that paper that she voluntarily signed. Something we Americans experience all the time.

And of course, as usual, she's been here nine years and still needs a Spanish language translator. What's with all these poeple saying how much they want the American dream, how much they ARE Americans, but they never bother to learn English even after years and decades here?

She hopes to find a lawyer who will convince an immigration judge to give her amnesty for at least a year. By then, she said, the government may establish a guest worker program that would allow her to stay indefinitely.

This arguement keeps coming up. It was used for the illegals in Chicago, when some latino judge granted them an extension. You can't make legal judgements on laws that haven't and may never be written.