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Note lures immigrant to her arrest
Lawyer thought D.M. teen was to get green card

By JENNIFER JACOBS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER


June 2, 2006



When a lawyer for Estephanie Izaquirre, a parentless teenager from Honduras, received an e-mail from an immigration official in Des Moines saying the girl should come downtown and "complete the paperwork" Thursday, he thought that meant she was about to get her green card.

Instead, a deportation officer arrested Izaquirre, five days after she graduated from East High School in Des Moines.

"This was just calculated as hell, and it's hugely problematic," the lawyer, Jim Benzoni, said. "Immigration services is using false inducements to get people in there. If our clients are supposed to be telling the truth, why is the government not required to do the same?"

The tactic is being used increasingly throughout the United States, especially within the last six months, to reduce the number of people who stay in the country despite a deportation order, said Amy Peck, an Omaha lawyer who is the national chairwoman of the liaison committee between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Several lawyers have reported to the committee that officials are using similarly vague wording "as a ruse to get people to come in" so they can be arrested, Peck said.

"It's a trick," she said. "It is misleading. But I can't go as far as to say it's improper."

U.S. immigration officials said Izaquirre was a fugitive - she sneaked across the U.S. border at age 13 - and there was an outstanding order for her deportation.

"The e-mail was exactly what it says ... finalize the situation. Her attorney can say it's deliberately vague, but I think it's specific in saying we need to complete our paperwork and take action one way or another," said Marilu Cabrera, spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Benzoni said he would continue to fight the deportation of Izaquirre, who he said is essentially an orphan. Her mother is dead and her father was never in the picture.

The person looking after her in Honduras pressed her into prostitution, the lawyer said.

In 2001, Izaquirre made the journey to be with her sister, Reyna Jasso, who came to the United States illegally but married an American and is now a U.S. citizen living in Des Moines.

Soon after Izaquirre crossed the border into Texas, she was picked up by immigration officials, then released into the custody of her traveling companion - a woman who pretended to be her aunt, Benzoni said. Izaquirre was given notice of an immigration hearing with a time and date to be determined later.

A notice of the hearing date was mailed to an address in Iowa that the "aunt" had provided; it was returned stamped "undelivered" to the immigration office, Benzoni said. The lawyer said immigration officials confirmed that the letter was not delivered.

When Izaquirre didn't appear for the hearing, a federal judge issued an order for her deportation in her absence.

Meanwhile, Benzoni used a provision in the law that allows young immigrants who qualify as "children in need of assistance" to get a green card even if they're in the country illegally.

Izaquirre at age 17 was granted special immigrant juvenile status as an abandoned, abused child with nowhere else to go.

On Tuesday, the day after her 18th birthday, the e-mail asking her to "complete the paperwork" arrived.

"That's playing dirty," said Lori Chesser, a Des Moines immigration lawyer. "What are we going after juveniles for? I mean, can't we concentrate on drug traffickers and human traffickers? I don't understand where we're going with this enforcement."

Spokesman Tim Counts said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported 167,000 people last year; about 3,000 were from the five-state area including Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and North and South Dakota. Half of all those deported were classified "criminal aliens" because of prior criminal histories. The U.S. government reports more than 12 million illegal immigrants living here.

"Anytime we arrest anyone who isn't an ax murderer, people ask us what we're doing," Counts said. "Anyone who is in the United States illegally is subject to arrest and removal. We always prioritize cases involving national security and criminal activity, but we also enforce the immigration laws."