Immigration controversies expose sense of entitlement
Lauren Ritchie

July 12, 2009

A year ago, I marveled in a column about the actions of illegal immigrants who roughed up a deputy sheriff in March 2008 when he showed up to quiet a loud party in Sorrento.

Folks without proper papers used to scatter when law enforcement arrived.

Now, a Honduran woman who isn't supposed to be here in the first place has given formal notice that she plans to sue Tavares police and the Lake County sheriff for holding her a week or so longer than they were supposed to while in the process of throwing her out of the country.

Stunning.

An illegal immigrant suing in what likely will become a civil-rights case. My, oh my. Things certainly have changed, haven't they? Certainly everyone deserves human rights — but civil rights? Will she want to vote next? No, but she'll want Lake County taxpayer money in a nice fat settlement. Hopefully, the federal government will collect her back taxes off the top. She shouldn't get a dime.

The case involves Rita "Fanny" Enriquez-Perdomo Côte, who was picked up in February by Tavares police after a domestic disturbance at her home involving her sister and sister's boyfriend, neither of whom could produce valid identification. Côte gave officers her Honduran passport, and a check on her in the national crime database revealed that she was wanted on an administrative warrant issued by an immigration judge in Harlingen, Texas.



Sheriff admits mistake
Minutes later, Côte acknowledged in a taped telephone conversation with an immigration agent that she was in this country "illegally."

Côte, the mother of three who works as a waitress at a Eustis restaurant, stated in court documents that she was 15 when she came across the border of Mexico with her mother in 2000, and she has stayed continuously in the U.S. since then.

She wrote, "I recall being stopped by immigration authorities when I was traveling with my mother in 2001 but have not heard anything about that since."

However, immigration authorities proceeded with the case and eventually issued an order to deport her. Côte was not charged with anything because being in the United States without proper paperwork is a violation of a civil rule, not a crime. Since then, an immigration judge has postponed her deportation so that the case can be heard in Orlando.

But Côte was held in the Lake County Jail for more than a week after an immigration agent gave the jail authority to hold her for two days. Immigration did not pick her up within the specified time limit, so she should have been released. Sheriff Gary Borders has said his agency made a mistake and that he has changed procedures so it doesn't happen to anyone else.


Lawyer: Status doesn't matter
Côte's lawyer, Howard Marks of Winter Park, said the issue of whether Côte was here legally doesn't matter when it comes to her threatened lawsuit.

"Even if we assume someone is here illegally, then we should take our law and do whatever we can legally to deport — fine. But that doesn't give us the right to abuse them," Marks said. "It doesn't give us the right to shoot, beat or unlawfully detain or torture them."

Of course not. But holding someone a few extra days by accident? This is "torture"? Are people who aren't supposed to be here in the first place entitled to civil rights or basic human rights? On second thought, why are we even discussing this? It's absurd and flies in the face of the common sense.

And the suggestion that Lake County taxpayers may have to hand over cash to an illegal immigrant for accidentally holding her several extra days is outlandish. Please. Put me on that jury.

There used to be a sense that living quietly was necessary to avoid detection and that becoming an American was a worthy goal. The notion of suing over a small mistake would not ever have been considered because illegal immigrants knew without doubt that they had no right to be here.

Now? The lines are blurred, and a sense of entitlement that isn't valid has emerged.


'I am also American'
Another example of how illegal immigrants think of themselves in America came in a call the Sheriff's Office answered at 30011 County Road 437 on July 1.

A 27-year-old woman named Daniella Vazquez reported that her husband had taken their three children and returned to Mexico. They had been having marital troubles, she said, and she had not given him permission to take the children out of the country.

Her husband, Sebastian Ainslie Rodriguez, 29, had called her earlier in the day and told her she'd have to come back to Mexico if she wanted to see the children again.

In her sworn statement to deputies, hand-printed in Spanish, Vazquez said she had no money and was in the U.S. without papers. She said she was afraid her husband would hurt her children because he was "very violent" and begged deputies to help her.

"Here, I am alone. I am illegal, and the children, too," she wrote. "I am Mexican, but I am also American, like you."

American, like you ...

Detectives spent five days tracking down her husband and talking to him and the children through interpreters. The children said they were staying with their grandparents and were happy to be in Mexico, where they had friends. Rodriguez said he planned to move to Cancún, where he owns a house, and would try to start a business. Vazquez knows where the house is, he told deputies, and she is welcome to come live with him or nearby.


Things 'good' in U.S.
Vazquez told detectives that she was afraid to go to Mexico because she didn't "have anything there." Here, she said, "things were good."

After that, detectives could do no more because Rodriguez is the biological father of the kids, ages 10, 6 and 5, who are all citizens of Mexico, and the law permits him to take them home if he wants. Deputies did not turn Vazquez over to immigration authorities.

She asked detectives if she could travel to Mexico and bring the children back here, where they attend elementary school and speak English.

Detectives advised her that she'd have to have a visa — if she wanted to enter legally.

On Friday, Vazquez said she talks to her children by phone several times a week but doesn't plan to return to Mexico because she's afraid of her husband.

She said she has sought the help of several international organizations to help her get her kids back.

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