Thread: Just visiting - Boca Raton mom, daughter detained for overst

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Just visiting - Boca Raton mom, daughter detained for overstaying visas
By Meghan Meyer

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Sunday, June 18, 2006

BOCA RATON — Every morning, she raised the American flag in front of her high school.

Born in Guatemala and reared in the United States, 14-year-old Debora Puac has embraced her adopted country with fervent patriotism
that's why her friends and family reacted with horror when they learned immigration officials had arrested Debora and her mother, Sonia Choz de Puac, and sent them to a detention center in Pennsylvania.

Debora's father, Francisco Puac, has political asylum. Debora and Sonia have tourist visas that allow them to return to Guatemala to see family. They were charged with overstaying these visas.

After the Puacs spent more than a month in lockup, officials paroled them this month.

Their ordeal shed light on the federal government's scrutiny of visa holders in a time of increased enforcement. Their case demonstrates the complexity of immigration laws, experts say.

"In this case you have the family of a bona fide recipient of asylum, who could have gotten asylum themselves, and because of the complicated nature of the system are having deportation proceedings," said Michele Waslin, immigration policy director for the National Council of La Raza in Washington. "These are people who have a legal right to live in this country."

On a permanent vacation

Their 10-year multiple-entry visas entitled them to stay in the United States for up to six months at a time. When time ran out, Sonia and Debora would spend a few weeks in Guatemala, then return home to Boca Raton. Sonia timed their trips around school breaks for Debora, an honor student at Boca Raton High School.

It was an abuse of the tourist visa, which is meant for pleasure trips. Applicants must demonstrate that they have social and economic ties to their home countries, and that they do not intend to immigrate to the United States. The Puacs weren't supposed to be sending Debora to school.

But the strategy worked for seven years.

The tactic is not one that many immigrants use, said Cheryl Little, director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. Usually, once a prospective immigrant obtains a visa of any kindand leaves his country, he simply doesn't return when time runs out.

"People are afraid if they leave the country, they might not get back in even if they have a valid visa," Little said.

Of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, 40 percent have overstayed a visa, according to a study by the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington. They are considered undocumented immigrants because they don't have immigration documents; tourist and business visas are intended for visitors, not those who want to live permanently in the United States. The remaining 6 million to 7 million undocumented immigrants included in the 12 million estimate evaded authorities at border crossings and have no valid documents whatsoever.

Scrutiny of visa-holders has sharpened since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and subsequent shuffling of federal immigration agencies into the Department of Homeland Security. Before that, immigration experts say, the government did almost nothing to address illegal immigration.

"They're still doing relatively little even with the highly publicized roundups," said Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which seeks to limit immigration. "They're not doing anything to change the conditions that lead people to come to this country and remain here illegally."

Schools do not ask students about their immigration status, operating on a philosophy that everyone deserves an education.

At school, Debora devoted herself to the junior Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps. It's difficult to win a spot on the team, even harder for a freshman.

"She came here and blazed a trail from the moment she started here," said naval science instructor Edwin Morales, who supervises the Boca Raton High School program. "She's probably more patriotic than almost any other student we have."

In January, Sonia applied for a two-month extension so they would be able to stay through the end of the school year in May. Debora could go to the national junior ROTC competition in Pensacola, for which she had trained all year and ultimately won fourth in push-ups. In April, the application was denied. The family had 30 days to respond.

During that 30 days, the visa was still valid, even though the six months had passed, contended the family's attorney, Linda Cahill.

Immigration officials saw things differently.

"If you arrive in the United States on a tourist visa to see Disney World, and you stay beyond six months, you violate your contract with us," said Zachary Mann, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Miami."You are subject to removal."

Fleeing peril

Married 30 years, Sonia Choz and Francisco Puac made frequent public appearances when they lived in the state of Totonicapan, in the Guatemalan highlands. Francisco organized sporting events and would advertise them on television. He ran for mayor with Sonia, a psychologist, at his side during speeches.

"I wanted to work for the people," Francisco said. "I wanted to change the situation."

He made a lot of enemies, the most dangerous through his job investigating drug traffickers. When a co-worker was killed and he was the target of threats himself, he got scared. The family moved to the United States, where Puac obtained asylum in 2001. Now he owns a bakery in West Palm Beach.

It's still dangerous for them.

During visits to Totonicapan, Sonia and Debora stayed in the family's home. Grandparents, aunts and uncles came to visit. They rarely went out in public.

On their last visit, Debora and Sonia returned to the Miami airport at 7 p.m. April 30. They would stay there for 12 hours.

The next day, more than a million people rallied in cities across the country for immigration reform, some skipping school and work to draw attention to the cause.

As they attempted to reenter the country, a customs officer took Sonia alone into a small room. Screaming, she demanded to know why Debora attended school in the United States. Sonia asked for asylum. At about 5 a.m., two female officers came in and ordered them against the wall to be searched. They took fingerprints, a difficult task, as Sonia's hands were sweating, even though the room was freezing.

"Our officers try to treat everyone with as much courtesy as possible," Mann said. "You hear people say I was mistreated or treated differently. We treat everyone the same." About 7 a.m., a van took them to Krome Detention Center west of Miami. There were cameras everywhere, and a bathroom with an open stall: no door, no privacy. Guards stood between them and leering men in orange uniforms.

"I was scared," Debora recalled. "I had never seen anything like this before, except on TV, court shows." Officers took them to a nearby hotel, where they shared a room with a Colombian woman and her daughter. During the next few days, they went back and forth to Krome, for medical examinations and paperwork. Doctors X-rayed their chests and gave them pregnancy tests afterward. Debora put off taking a shower, thinking she'd wait until she returned home.

Finally, they had an interview with immigration officials, who determined that they had a credible fear of going back to Guatemala. They would be allowed to apply for asylum. They could go home tomorrow, the officers told them.

Instead, officers woke them up at 3 a.m. May 4. They were flown to Pennsylvania.

That morning, Francisco Puac arrived at the hotel to take his wife and daughter home, only to find they'd been whisked away.

Family-friendly detention

As the government steps up enforcement of immigration laws, more detainees are transferred out of the state or deported, and quickly, Little said.

"It creates huge problems for them," she said. "If their attorney and support system is in Florida, it's much more difficult for them to win their case."

Debora finally got her shower at Immigration and Customs Enforcement's family shelter in rural Berks County, Pa. She had to use delousing shampoo.

Most of the other detainees had tried unsuccessfully to evade authorities at the border. One family had been there a year and seven months.

You're never getting out of here, they told Sonia and Debora. If you're here, you're getting deported. The first two weeks, Debora shared a room with three other girls, including 6-year-old twins, Rocio and Natalie. The twins came from Totonicapan too.

They told her not to cry and offered her stickers.

"So then I was crying because I was sad, and at the same time, they're trying to make me feel better, and the only thing they can get me is a sticker," Debora said. Sonia roomed with the twins' mother, who had fled an abusive husband in Guatemala. She had been at Berks County for 11 months, and she still had bruises from the beatings.

The twins and their mother were deported two weeks later. Debora had been certain they would obtain asylum. It scared her.

"She had proof in her body," Debora said. "We were just starting. What if we got deported?"

As she tried to fall asleep on the 2-inch-thick mattress, Debora thought of her bedroom at home. An explosion of pink, it looks like a warehouse for Hello Kitty collectibles. She usually keeps a Bible there, on her bed. She still had that, and it gave her comfort.

The detainees rose at 6:30 a.m., all but Debora, who woke up a half-hour early to do push-ups and crunches. Her new roommates, two teenage girls from China, joined in.

In the morning they checked the day's job list for their cleaning chores. After breakfast, the children attended class. The teachers constantly admonished them to speak English, though most knew not a word of the language.

Debora made perfect scores. With nothing else to do, she tutored three teenage boys.

The teachers gave her a notebook. She started writing the story of her ordeal, and she wrote out Bible verses for the other children.

"I thought maybe this is why God put me here, to help people," she said. "Maybe he's not going to let me out of here 'til I'm done."

Sonia and Debora cherished their time outdoors, two 45-minute sessions each day. Accustomed to running 5 miles every weekend with her father, Debora craved exercise. She and Sonia walked 5 miles a day. In a month, they probably walked 150 miles.

Outside, the younger children played a chilling game of tag. The girls would scream, "Run faster, as if Immigration was behind us," Debora recalled. "They would crouch on the floor as if they were hiding." They called Francisco every night. Their lawyers had applied for parole, and they were released, without warning, on June 7. The staff made them wash the breakfast dishes because they wouldn't be around for lunch.

They faced a 25-hour train journey because they no longer had passports needed to board a plane.

In the Philadelphia train station, 33 days of institutional food behind her at last, Debora made a beeline for the doughnut shop. When Amtrak's Silver Meteor finally pulled into the Deerfield Beach station the next day, more than an hour late, Francisco jogged across the platform to meet them. The family collapsed in a rush of hugs and tears.

This summer, Debora plans to finish writing her book. She and Sonia also are collecting shampoo and sneakers for the detainees in Pennsylvania. They're working with their attorneys to prepare their case for asylum.

The Puacs' attempt to abide by the letter, if not the spirit, of their visas came back to haunt them.

"I feel for her because her family has made a dedicated attempt to stay here legally," said Morales, the ROTC instructor. "The struggle they're facing is because they're trying to do the right thing."

Infused with her parents' devotion to education, Debora wants to go to college in the United States, then maybe become an astronaut or a pilot. The schools are better here, she said.

"I love my school," she said. "I really want to be in ROTC all four years. That's why I want to stay."

If Debora wants to stay here, she needs to go home to her country and apply for legal citizenship just as all legal citizens here had to do!

They should have both been deported. They took advantage of the system and are nothing more than law breakers.

Brian, why do you provide the sob stories of law breakers and system abusers? Why not provide a few of the many thousands of stories available from American citizens that have suffered immensely at the hands of illegal immigrants? Some of those are REAL sad stories that would probably even convert you - that is if you have a heart!

I post stuff from all sides of the issue. I believe it's important to see the articles and propaganda the media is putting in the news for the average reader. I hope the sob stories make you angry to fight. I suspect a few of the articles are even fabricated to try and convert people to the open border side. Some of these articles are sort of funny because they are so over the top trying to get your sympathy.

If these people are trying so hard to be able to stay here why do they not apply for citizenship, especially in this case where they were going back and forth from their own country and the USA. No they only think of that when they get caught. Well now that is too bad, she had no right to be in school here and they did overstay their visas. Deport them.

Brian wrote:

I post stuff from all sides of the issue. I believe it's important to see the articles and propaganda the media is putting in the news for the average reader. I hope the sob stories make you angry to fight. I suspect a few of the articles are even fabricated to try and convert people to the open border side. Some of these articles are sort of funny because they are so over the top trying to get your sympathy.

Hmmm, after reading some of your threads, I was beginning to think you were a pro-illegal immigrant advocate.

Originally Posted by MW

Brian wrote:

I post stuff from all sides of the issue. I believe it's important to see the articles and propaganda the media is putting in the news for the average reader. I hope the sob stories make you angry to fight. I suspect a few of the articles are even fabricated to try and convert people to the open border side. Some of these articles are sort of funny because they are so over the top trying to get your sympathy.

Hmmm, after reading some of your threads, I was beginning to think you were a pro-illegal immigrant advocate.

I guess you missed all the articles I have posted by Frosty Wooldridge, Daneen Petersen, and Devvy who write some very hard hitting articles against illegal immigration. Daneen Petersen is one of my favorite writers on the subject.

Also if I was pro-illegal immigration do you think the forum owner would give me mod/admin status here? I've booted many a pro-illegal troll off this forum trying to disrupt it.

Brian wrote:

I guess you missed all the articles I have posted by Frosty Wooldridge, Daneen Petersen, and Devvy who write some very hard hitting articles against illegal immigration. Daneen Petersen is one of my favorite writers on the subject.

Also if I was pro-illegal immigration do you think the forum owner would give me mod/admin status here? I've booted many a pro-illegal troll off this forum trying to disrupt it.

To be completely honest, I'm fairly new here (6/1/05) and haven't gotten to know everyone just yet. For the most part, that is because I don't frequently check the owners name on each post I read. It's just that a couple of them I read today caught my attention. Sorry for the confusion.

No problem! If I was a pro-illegal shill these guys would have had me for dinner a long time ago.

Also I don't know if you noticed but some of the sob story articles end up getting more replies than the hard hitting ones. They tend to get people more riled up.