Lawyer -- once an illegal -- knows desperation
by Teresa Puente

September 15, 2008

Karina Ayala-Bermejo remembers the day her parents put her in a white dress with flowers embroidered on the collar. They handed her over to a couple who pretended to be her parents as they crossed the border in a car. They used a birth certificate of another child to smuggle Karina, then only 2, from Mexico into the United States.

Now 37 and a mother of three, she shudders at the thought of turning her own children over to the "coyotes," what Mexicans call smugglers.

"But I understand the desperation and poverty and wanting better lives and dreams for their children," said Ayala-Bermejo, today an attorney and the incoming deputy commissioner of human resources for the City of Chicago.

In this column, I am profiling six immigrants who used to be undocumented. Ayala-Bermejo's story is the fourth in the series.

Ayala-Bermejo and her family became legal residents through old "anchor baby" laws that are no longer in effect. Her brother was born in the United States, so her family was able to legalize through him. She became a U.S. citizen in 1997.

But when she hears about the Bush administration's newest tactic -- mass immigration raids -- she thinks about the separation of families. In May, 400 immigrants were rounded up in Iowa, and 600 were arrested this month in Mississippi. More than 500 children were left behind in that state. Some of the mothers were allowed to go home to care for their children and are now walking around with electronic monitoring bracelets.

"I feel like I'm reliving my own separation when I hear about parents being ripped away from their children," she said.

From Mississippi, immigrant fathers -- most from Mexico and Panama -- have been sent to jail in Jena, La., making it nearly impossible for their wives and children to visit them.

Complicating matters is a new Mississippi law that makes using false documents to get a job a felony punishable by up to five years in jail. Five years for working? That is a waste of taxpayer money.

We don't need laws like this, and no matter how many raids immigration officials launch, they will never be able to deport all of the 12 million undocumented immigrants in this country.

What we need instead is comprehensive immigration reform to take immigrants who are a vital part of our economy out of the shadows.

Their children could wind up with futures like Ayala-Bermejo, who contributes to the tax base and helps the community. She graduated from Loyola University and DePaul's College of Law. She was previously an assistant attorney with the Chicago Board of Education. She's director of community services with the Chicago Bar Association and general counsel of the Hispanic National Bar Association. She has won many awards for her community service, including one from the Chicago Commission on Human Relations.

Ayala-Bermejo understands the law and explains that many immigrants, particularly those from Mexico, come here illegally because the waiting lists for those hoping to unify with legal family members can average 15 years or more.

For example, an adult son or daughter from Mexico, who applied for visas with a family sponsor in 1992, will finally be eligible to get their visas in October 2008.

Those who marry U.S. citizens have the shortest waits, but those who have no family sponsor have virtually no way to immigrate unless an employer sponsors them. Visas for skilled workers and unskilled workers are capped at around 65,000 a year apiece. "Gone are the days when one could come on a boat to Ellis Island and be greeted by the Statue of Liberty," Ayala-Bermejo said. "It's no longer a possibility."
http://www.suntimes.com/news/puente/116 ... 15.article
tipped to article by ChiWatcher