Thread: Deportation to break up Beaverton family

Deportation to break up Beaverton family

Mom, 2 children ordered back to Guatemala; father, youngest daughter stay here -- for now

Friday, October 06, 2006

ESMERALDA BERMUDEZ

The Oregonian

BEAVERTON -- All around the modest double-wide that has been home to the Diaz family for years there are signs that their time together has all but run out.

Outside, a window sign publicizes the sale of their home. Inside, rally placards -- "Diaz Family Forever" and "Do not break them apart" -- line the wall. On a cluttered desk rests a last plea for help: a letter to President Bush.

After waging a decade-long battle for political asylum, Irma Diaz and her two oldest children, 21-year-old Luis Jr. and 20-year-old Monica, have been ordered to return to their native Guatemala by midnight Tuesday. They will leave behind father Luis Sr., who is appealing his request for political asylum, and Jennifer, an 11-year-old daughter who is a U.S. citizen.

"I know what I did. I know I don't deserve to ask for rights," said Irma, who entered the country illegally in 1993 with her older children. "But I ask for compassion. This country speaks of human rights. We came here because we faced threats in Guatemala. Please don't send us back."

The final order of deportation brings a summer of uncertainty to an end for a family who has built a life in Beaverton and doesn't see a future in Guatemala. While community members in recent months rallied in support of the Diazes, calling them ideal Americans, the family waited for help. They first hoped Congress would act on new immigration law and then counted on a private bill presented in Washington, D.C., on their behalf.

But federal discussions on immigration reform have stalled and in September, the private bill was dropped.

Next week, Irma and her children are expected to join the national stream of nearly 116,000 illegal immigrants who have been deported this year. Many of those left behind legal relatives -- children, parents and spouses.

While the Diazes may be out of options, others nationwide are fighting against the break-up of families, specifically the separation of illegal immigrant parents from their U.S.-born children.

In Miami on Wednesday, a coalition of local immigrant advocacy groups filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of dozens of U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants. They contend that the constitutional rights of young citizens are being violated by the family's unstable status and that deportations of parents should stop until Congress rules on new immigration law.

In Chicago, an illegal immigrant and mother of a 7-year-old U.S. citizen has taken refuge in a church since mid-August when federal authorities ordered her to return to Mexico. Slow in packing

While Luis Diaz Sr., a maintenance supervisor, and Irma Diaz, who works in an embroidery shop, say they won't take that kind of action, they have been purposely slow in packing. They've bought plane tickets but avoid planning the trip to the airport. They pray that at the last minute something will change in their favor.

Three times this summer, the family's deportation was stayed -- once hours before Irma and her children were to board a plane.

In 1991, Luis Diaz Sr. left his family in Escuintla, Guatemala, after receiving threats for organizing a union at a paper mill. Once in Hillsboro, he applied for political asylum and was granted a work permit. When Diaz's application had not been processed by 1993, Irma set out illegally to join her husband, with Luis Jr. and Monica.

Upon arrival she filed separately for political asylum for herself and the two older children. In 1997, their request was denied, but they stayed waiting for federal authorities to rule on Luis Diaz Sr.'s claim.

This year, his request was denied by an asylums officer who found no evidence of past persecution or a well-grounded fear of future persecution based on Diaz's union activities. Diaz's case is on appeal. It is expected to take months for a decision, said Tilman Hasche, the family's attorney.

"We need more functional people like them in this country," Hasche said of the Diaz family. Neighbors, friends rally

On Wednesday, several family members spent the day preparing for a rally to get the word out and ask for help. About 100 neighbors and friends from school, church and work attended.

"The rules aren't functioning," said Jim Shinn, whose wife, Tish, taught Monica Diaz at Elmonica Elementary School. "They're supposed to help people who contribute to this country gain citizenship, but it's all very arbitrary depending on where you come from."

With less than a week to go, a return to Guatemala seems unreal, said Monica Diaz, who has lived in Beaverton since she was 7. The 20-year-old girl who hopes to be a teacher can't read or write in Spanish. She also can't pronounce Escuintla, the name of the Guatemalan town where she will live.

"This is my home," she said.

Esmeralda Bermudez: 503-221-4388; ebermudez@news.oregonian.com



©2006 The Oregonian

Trying to stay with a hokey asylum plea.

I don't want to separate illegal alien parents from their U.S.-born children. I want them all deported. The anchor babies too. Those children should have been born where the parents should have been living. Don't let them leave the kids behind. Send them with the parents.

What kind of man would let his wife go back to Guatemala, where her life is allegedly in danger? Cling on!

Dixie

I have to go find the tissues...

I feel sorry for the kids, but ultimately the parents are responsible for their situation, not us. Now the girl will HAVE to learn the language of the country she rightfully BELONGS in. Is that worse than US having to know Spanish? And I wonder who paid for her to go to school? Her ILLEGAL parents? NOT.

Saying this is her home would be like my kids saying a car I stole is theirs!

"This is my home," she said.

WRONG! Your home is the country of your legal citizenship.

So many of these "hard working, family oriented" illegals have left small children in their home countries, gone for years from them and yet expect sympathy if they are caught here with an anchor baby "citizen". Now those are some real family values. Reunite them south of our border!!

Send them back..... all of them. How many people came here legally, left their chidren and spouse at home and then brought them here legally. There have even been cases where children were left with other relatives temporarily. This family division happens all the time with Cubans.

This same woman covers all of the immigration and Latino issues for the Oregonian, she is so one-sided I am sure she walks with a huge limp!

This I believe is the same woman who came to the rally I held in downtown and got mad when at the end of her interview with me asked me if I considered myself as middle class or upper middle class, I told her neither and that we lived on one income of less the $26thousand, homeschooled our kids and lived in a rental. She huffed and walked away.

I suppose she wanted to make an article saying this rich white woman was out rallying against poor brown people, but she could not so no article was ever in the paper, she could not promote it as oppression of another race by the rich so she decided to omit it altogether, not letting readers know that the people out there fighting back at illegal immigration are the ones the issue has hit the hardest, the working class families.

This story has been in the papers for a long time and how nice these people are, and how great of neighbors they are, beloved and good people. Yet she fails to inform readers of the illegal status of the whole family. She paints them as "immigrants".

Most rich people don't mind them as they don't have to live with them or shop with them and enjoy that cheap labor. It is the rest of us that have to live with them.

Most rich people don't mind them as they don't have to live with them or shop with them and enjoy that cheap labor. It is the rest of us that have to live with them.

Like most of our liberal politicians.