Six Hispanic teenagers in the United States illegally since childhood were turned over to federal immigration authorities yesterday for deportation after pleading guilty to charges that normally carry no jail time.

In Forsyth District Court, six sheriff's deputies stood squarely behind the teenagers as they got up individually and pleaded guilty to a string of car break-ins and thefts last winter in Forsyth County.

Relatives sitting a few rows behind them sobbed as Mireille Clough, a defense attorney, asked for leniency for her client, Oscar Omar Dominguez Parral, 17. She described Dominguez as a high-school student with good grades.

"The decision to come to this country was not his. Unfortunately, the decision to leave is not his either," Clough said.

The teenagers, all from Winston-Salem and 16 or 17 when arrested, are natives of Mexico who have lived in this country since they can remember, defense attorneys said.

Besides Dominguez, the teenagers facing deportation are Jose Adrian Avarca-Barrientos, Jose Barrientos Gallardo, Oscar Gallardo Jimenez, Mario Jhamager Tapia and Christian Ramirez Navidad. A seventh teenager, who is a U.S. citizen, is being treated separately as a juvenile.

Because none of the six in court yesterday had a prior record, they would have left the courtroom with no possibility of jail time had they been U.S. citizens. Their charges would not have risen to the level of a deportable offense, either, if the amount of damage they had caused had been less than $19,000. But it was a lot more.

Last winter, riding around Kernersville, Winston-Salem and parts of Forsyth County, the teenagers used slingshots and ball bearings to shoot out car windows and steal an untold number of compact discs and stereos. They caused $26,652 in damage, authorities said.

By pleading guilty, the teenagers forfeited any possibility of returning to the United States or of becoming naturalized, prosecutors said. If they try to re-enter the country, they risk serving as much as 10 years in prison. They were taken to jail pending a deportation hearing, which must be held before they can be sent back to Mexico.

There were so many misdemeanor charges that the Forsyth County District Attorney's Office couldn't list all of them in a news release. Prosecutors merely said that there were hundreds of misdemeanors and more than 80 felonies of breaking and entering motor vehicles.

Before the sentencing, defense attorneys gave emotional speeches about whether deportation was a fair punishment for what one later called "glorified vandalism.'' The defense attorneys stressed that some of the teenagers had younger relatives at home who were U.S. citizens. But the judge, who had no authority to change the deportation order, said that it was a fair punishment.

Speaking directly to the teenagers, Judge Denise Hartsfield said that as a black woman, she empathized with the Hispanic teens as minorities. But she told them that the punishment would be felt more by their families. The freedom and opportunity for which the parents had worked also comes with responsibilities, she said.

"You weren't willing to latch onto the rules and regulations of this country," Hartsfield said.

The type of felony the six teenagers were charged with normally carries a penalty of six months community punishment. Because they had no prior record, the misdemeanor charge normally comes with a penalty of 45 days of community service.

The parents of the youths were allowed to stand next to their child as each pleaded guilty, but at the end of the proceeding, the teenagers were taken away. In a hallway outside the courtroom, one of the mothers, Clotilde Parral, said that she didn't know what she would do now. Her son faces a life in a country that he barely knows. Meanwhile, she has a younger son, a U.S. citizen, who may have to go, too, as she decides whether to return to Mexico herself.

"Maybe I'll probably go," Parral said, crying. "It's not fair."

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