Prayer, a call to action for undocumented immigrant

Hearing for Julio Tellez set for Wednesday in Cleveland

CARTHAGE - "I am nervous. My heart is pounding really hard. Today I can be here. Next week I might be somewhere else."

Julio Tellez, 24, surrounded by more than 30 supporters - some family, some friends and some people who've never met him before - stood on the altar at San Carlos Borromeo Church on Monday night.

They'd come to show support and pray for Tellez - an undocumented immigrant who has lived in the United States since he was 8 - less than 48 hours before he'd stand in front of a federal immigration judge in Cleveland. His hearing will be 2 p.m. Wednesday.

Tellez is a 2005 graduate of Hamilton High School and former engineering student at Miami University-Hamilton campus. He was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Belmont County, Ohio, in January 2008. The minivan carrying Tellez and four other Hispanic men back from a construction job in Pittsburgh broke down on Interstate 70.

Tellez was served with an order to appear, not a deportation order.

He is the sole breadwinner in his family - his mother, who is disabled and undocumented, and a younger brother and sister who both are U.S. citizens. Their father was deported. Tellez has a drywall and construction company.

"Julio stepped in and took care of us," said his sister, Natalia. "He has supported us in everything. He has done nothing wrong."

Most of the people in the church were Hispanic, yet many were non-Hispanic whites. Lois Gish, 59, a retired midwife from College Hill, wanted to pray for Tellez and the thousands like him - victims, she said, of U.S. trade policy that has left Mexicans and other Central Americans hungry with no job opportunities.

"They have no choice," Gish said. "We are a human family. I don't believe people can be illegal."

After an opening prayer by the Rev. Jorge Ochoa, a priest at San Carlos, Tellez family members spoke.

"We are people of God," Ochoa said. "Julio's family members are people of God. We are one family here tonight asking God to open the hearts and minds of our lawmakers and our judge."

Then his supporters received a slip of paper with the phone numbers of Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and John Morton, director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).


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