Thread: Deportation over 21-year-old charge strands Long Beach immigrant in Mexico

Deportation over 21-year-old charge strands Long Beach immigrant in Mexico


José Alvarez cries when asked how he is feeling, next to his wife, Infa, who came to
visit him in Tijuana, Mexico, April 17. José was deported after being held by a Cal State
Long Beach police officer Feb. 21. (Photo By Karen Sawyer)

By Ariana Sawyer and Kevin Flores, Special to the Press-Telegram
Posted: 05/05/16, 6:06 PM PDT | Updated: 8 hrs ago


Dirt roads sprawl in the neighborhood of Las Cumbres in Tijuana, Mexico, April 17 where
José Alvarez is staying after being deported in the early hours of Feb. 22. (Photo By Karen Sawyer)

TIJUANA, Mexico >> On the outer edge of the city, up a series of pitted dirt roads, José Alvarez, 53, is alone in a city he hasn’t visited since 1974.

He sleeps on an air mattress and cooks on a camping stove in an unfurnished duplex situated between a garbage-filled gulch and the scorched remains of what was once a neighbor’s house. The only kitchen appliance is a mini fridge raised off the floor by cinder blocks.

A stocky and moustached man with calloused hands, Alvarez pressed a T-shirt to his face and sobbed. On a recent visit, his wife, Infa Ortiz, pleaded for her husband’s return.

“We need him,” she said.

Alvarez was deported from Long Beach to Tijuana after being pulled over in February by the Cal State Long Beach Police Department for a broken headlight.

The officer discovered Alvarez had an immigration detainer request placed on him in relation to a nonviolent drug charge 21 years ago.

After outcry and protests by some at the college over Alvarez’ deportation — including a May Day rally in downtown Long Beach on Sunday, where his son Victor pleaded with the university to “bring my dad back” — Cal State Long Beach Police Chief Fernando Solorzano announced new orders that the campus department will no longer cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE by holding undocumented foreign nationals whether or not that person has an immigration hold.

But for Alvarez, the change in policy came too late; it is unlikely he will ever legally return to U.S. soil.

SUBJECTIVE DECISIONS

Alvarez’s case shows the confusing and at times subjective nature of deportation decisions and the toll it takes on families who have lived in the U.S. for decades.

According to Pew Research Center, roughly 2.4 million people were deported from the United States between 2008 and 2013. Of those, roughly 1 million were classified as criminals. Of those classified as criminals, about 250,000 were people whose most serious crime was a nonviolent drug charge, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

But many agencies, including Long Beach police, generally do not cooperate with ICE. Sgt. Brad Johnson, spokesman for the city department, said one of the reasons is that ICE too often fails to purge its system of old warrants. Long Beach police doesn’t detain undocumented people unless they are suspected of an aggravated felony — and even then, he said ICE must produce a signed judicial order to hold the inmate.

Alvarez, who had recently started his own plaster company in Long Beach, never sought legal citizenship because of his criminal conviction, which disqualified him from ever obtaining a green card. His wife, Infa, is a naturalized citizen. Alvarez has six U.S.-born children, including a son who served in the Marine Corps for seven years.

Infa said her husband is the breadwinner of the family.

“He’s not a criminal,” she said.

THE TRAFFIC STOP

On Feb. 21 at about 10:30 p.m., Alvarez left his home in the Cambodia Town area of Long Beach to pick up his son from work at Krispy Kreme near the Traffic Circle. On the way, a CSULB police officer pulled him over for having a broken headlight.

Audio recordings obtained through a public records request reveal the officer, Ivan Sanchez, was initially inclined to let Alvarez go, even after a wants-and- warrants search triggered a hit in ICE’s database.

The officer is heard saying that Alvarez had been cleared and was free to go, reminding him to get his headlight fixed. Alvarez tried to start his 1992 Toyota Corolla, but the car sputtered and overheated.

The audio cuts out at that point, but a police report reveals an ICE official contacted the officer and said Alvarez had an immigration detainer request on him related to a 1995 conviction for possession and transportation of a controlled substance — crystal meth — for which he served three and a half years in prison.

The officer turned the audio back on when he again approached Alvarez.

Sanchez, who started the traffic stop sounding confident and conversational, seemed to become increasingly confused over the course of the hourlong stop.
“It makes no sense,” he said to another officer at the scene, flustered by the back-and-forth between ICE and Alvarez.

After several exchanges, Alvarez was handcuffed and taken to the university substation jail. ICE agents picked him up within the hour, records show.

“I paid tickets, went to court, drove trucks for a company and passed through the weigh stations, and never had a problem with immigration,” Alvarez said later.

Cal State Long Beach officials have repeatedly described the police department’s cooperation with ICE as an anomaly. CSULB spokeswoman Terri Carbaugh said it’s fair to say Sanchez was confused when he “inadvertently became immersed in immigration law.”

About 900 undocumented students attend the university, and those who transfer from California high schools receive in-state tuition under AB 540. The university policies are clear, but for a police officer on the streets, things can get messy, Carbaugh said.

Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman with the Western Regional office of ICE, said Alvarez is a convicted drug trafficker who has been previously deported. Alvarez said he was in fact deported, twice: The first time was from San Francisco after he was detained by police shortly after his arrival to the U.S. in the 1970s, and again in 1999 after serving his time in prison.

“I had to come back,” he said. “My kids were young.”

Despite the lapse in time from his conviction, Kice said Alvarez was considered a priority for the agency, which relies on voluntary collaboration with police officers to identify and report people here illegally who pose a threat.

Jennie Pasquarella, director of immigrant rights for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, countered that the more police agencies are involved with ICE warrants, the more they’re driving a wedge between themselves and the community.

“People are not going to want to have anything to do with police if they fear that any conduct — even just to report a crime — could lead them to deportation,” she said.

UNIVERSITY RESPONSE

Cal State Long Beach officials have repeatedly described the police department’s cooperation with ICE as an anomaly. CSULB spokeswoman Terri Carbaugh said it’s fair to say Sanchez was confused when he “inadvertently became immersed in immigration law.”

About 900 undocumented students attend the university, and those who transfer from California high schools receive in-state tuition under AB 540. The university policies are clear, but for a police officer on the streets, things can get messy, Carbaugh said.

Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman with the Western Regional office of ICE, said Alvarez is a convicted drug trafficker who has been previously deported. Alvarez said he was in fact deported, twice: The first time was from San Francisco after he was detained by police shortly after his arrival to the U.S. in the 1970s, and again in 1999 after serving his time in prison.

“I had to come back,” he said. “My kids were young.”

Despite the lapse in time from his conviction, Kice said Alvarez was considered a priority for the agency, which relies on voluntary collaboration with police officers to identify and report people here illegally who pose a threat.

Jennie Pasquarella, director of immigrant rights for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, countered that the more police agencies are involved with ICE warrants, the more they’re driving a wedge between themselves and the community.

“People are not going to want to have anything to do with police if they fear that any conduct — even just to report a crime — could lead them to deportation,” she said.

UNCERTAIN FUTURE

Last month Alvarez’s wife, sons, daughters and grandchildren went to visit him in Mexico. His son Victor, who had planned to transfer to Cal State Long Beach, said that if his father doesn’t return, he will likely have to put off college and instead work more to bring money into the household.

Alvarez, meanwhile, isn’t sure what he’ll do. He’s frightened for his safety; violence from drug cartels prevented him from returning to his native Michoacan.

“You can’t live there,” he said of his hometown.

He moved into a duplex in Tijuana owned by his brother-in-law, and is working to fix it up in exchange for rent.

In Long Beach, the family is struggling financially. It is not clear what the future holds — whether Victor will take over the pool plaster company, or whether Alvarez will ever return.

“We are doing what we can,” Alvarez said.

Editor’s note: A version of this story first ran in the Daily 49er, the student newspaper at CSULB.

http://www.presstelegram.com/governm...rant-in-mexico

In America many families are struggling and we live here LEGALLY! Take your kids and family and go be with him in Mexico!

well our vet & every one is on the street you have more then they have

The officer discovered Alvarez had an immigration detainer request placed on him in relation to a nonviolent drug charge 21 years ago.

That he evaded and ignored the law for this long should be held against him, not used as a bleeding heart moment. He made his bed.